System and Method for an Estimated Consumer Price

ABSTRACT

The systems and methods may be used to recommend an item to a consumer. The methods may comprise determining, based on a collaborative filtering algorithm, a consumer relevance value associated with an item, and transmitting, based on the consumer relevance value, information associated with the item to a consumer. A collaborative filtering algorithm may receive as an input a transaction history associated with the consumer, a demographic of the consumer, a consumer profile, a type of transaction account, a transaction account associated with the consumer, a period of time that the consumer has held a transaction account, a size of wallet, and/or a share of wallet. The method may further comprise generating a ranked list of items based upon consumer relevance values, transmitting a ranked list of items to a consumer, and/or re-ranking a ranked list of items based upon a merchant goal.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, claims priority to and thebenefit of, U.S. Ser. No. 13/794,145 filed on Mar. 11, 2013 and entitled“SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TAILORING MARKETING.” The '145 applicationclaims priority to and the benefit of Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 61/610,981 filed on Mar. 14, 2012 and entitled “GENERATING ACUSTOMER REVIEW USING CUSTOMIZED TAGS”. The '145 application furtherclaims priority to, and the benefit of, U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/610,983 filed on Mar. 14, 2012 and entitled“TRANSACTION REWARDS LIST”. The '145 application further claims priorityto, and the benefit of, U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.61/610,461 filed on Mar. 13, 2012 and entitled “GENERATING MERCHANTRECOMMENDATIONS FOR CONSUMERS”. The '145 application further claimspriority to, and the benefit of, U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 61/646,778 filed on May 14, 2012 and entitled “SYSTEMS ANDMETHODS FOR TAILORED MARKETING BASED ON FILTERING.” All of theseapplications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety forall purposes.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present disclosure generally relates to tailored marketing.

2. Background

With the proliferation of the Internet, as well as the growingpopularity of mobile communication devices, marketplaces in which deals(e.g., offers, recommendations, etc.) are exchanged (e.g., purchased,sold, traded, distributed, etc.) have grown over time. This “dealsmarketplace” has grown quickly, but has encountered a number ofchallenges. For example, deals are often poorly tailored to consumers(e.g., deals are irrelevant or less relevant to consumers), which maylead many consumers to opt out of receiving such deals and/or a tendencyof consumers to “tune out” or ignore deals that are received. Similarly,processes associated with redemption and/or fulfillment of deals may becumbersome, which may discourage consumers from receiving deals and/ornecessitate tedious and/or expensive employee deal redemption trainingprograms. In addition, merchants often find it difficult to accuratelyassess the return on investment (or ROI) associated with deals they havepaid to have delivered to consumers. It would therefore be advantageousto have a system in which one or more merchants are able to accuratelytailor relevant deals to one or more consumers. Likewise, it would beadvantageous to have a system in which deal redemption and/orfulfillment are accomplished quickly and easily, and in which ROI may bemeasured.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure includes systems, methods, and/or articles ofmanufacture for tailoring marketing. In various embodiments, a methodmay comprise determining, based on a collaborative filtering algorithm,a consumer relevance value associated with a merchant and transmitting,based on the consumer relevance value, an offer associated with themerchant to a social media channel. In various embodiments, acollaborative filtering algorithm may receive, as an input, one or moreof: a transaction history associated with the consumer, a demographic ofthe consumer, a consumer profile, a type of transaction account, atransaction account associated with the consumer, a period of time thatthe consumer has held a transaction account, a size of wallet, and ashare of wallet, social data, time and/or date information, consumerfeedback, merchant characteristics, and/or the like. A method mayfurther comprise, in various embodiments, generating a ranked list ofitems based upon a plurality of consumer relevance values, transmittingthe ranked list of offers to a consumer, and/or re-ranking the rankedlist. Further, in various embodiments, a method may comprise receiving,from a merchant, a selection of a social media channel through whichinformation associated with an item should be delivered, and/orre-ranking an item in response to: a holiday, consumer feedback, and/orthe like.

In various embodiments, a method may comprise, determining a consumerrelevance value associated with a restaurant based upon a plurality ofitem to item similarity values, and transmitting, based on the consumerrelevance value, a restaurant identifier to the consumer.

In various embodiments, a method may comprise counting a number oftransactions with a merchant during a time period, determining anaverage transaction count based on the counting, determining a maximumtransaction count of the merchant during the time period, anddetermining a normalized popularity score based upon the averagetransaction count and the maximum transaction count.

In various embodiments, a method may comprise determining a consumerpreference, and transmitting information associated with an item to aweb client associated with a consumer.

In various embodiments, a method may comprise receiving a ratingassociated with an item, transmitting a plurality of word tags based onthe rating, and receiving a selection of one of the plurality of wordtags.

In various embodiments, a method may comprise determining a gratuityamount associated with a transaction, and determining a quality ofservice associated with a merchant associated with the transaction basedupon the gratuity amount.

In various embodiments, a method may comprise calculating based on afirst data set comprising a plurality of transactions associated with amerchant, a mean record of charge (ROC) amount and a standard deviationROC amount associated with the merchant, and determining a relativeconsumer cost based on the mean ROC amount and the standard deviationROC amount.

In various embodiments, a method may comprise determining a plurality ofpercentages of ROCs, wherein each of the plurality of percentages isassociated with a range of ROC amounts, and determining an estimatedprice per person based upon a first maximum in the percentages of theROCs.

In various embodiments, a method may comprise comparing a number of daysbetween a ROC associated with a merchant and a current date to a numberof consecutive days during which the merchant was not associated with aROC, and flagging the merchant with a status of inactive based upon thecomparing.

In various embodiments, a method may comprise offering a reward to aconsumer on a condition that the consumer check in with a merchant, andchecking in the consumer in response to a transaction with the merchant.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present disclosure will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings. The left-most digit of a reference numberidentifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary system diagram, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for tailoring arelevant item to a consumer, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for generating aconsumer relevance value, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 4A shows an exemplary item matrix, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 4B shows an exemplary item to item similarity matrix, in accordancewith various embodiments.

FIG. 5A shows an exemplary item to item similarity matrix used as partof a computation, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 5B shows an exemplary item matrix used as part of a computation, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 5C shows an exemplary CRV matrix, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary item to item similarity matrix includingdemographic information, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for adjusting amerchant goal based upon a consumer location, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 8A shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a merchant mayselect a tailoring option, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 8B shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a merchant maybuild an offer, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 8C shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a merchant mayselect one or more social media channels to feature an offer, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 9 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a merchant mayreview a marketing campaign report, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 10A shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumermay review one or more offers, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 10B shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumermay review details associated with one or more offers, in accordancewith various embodiments.

FIG. 10C shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumermay add one or more offers to a transaction account, in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 10D shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumermay review offers and filter based upon one or more filtering criteria,in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 10E shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumermay review the locations associated with one or more offers via a map,in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for adjustingtailoring based upon one or more merchant goals, in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 12 shows exemplary item matrices associated with a restaurantconsumer, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 13 shows exemplary item to item similarity matrices associated witha plurality of restaurants, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary item matrix and an exemplary item to itemsimilarity matrix, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 15 shows an exemplary CRV matrix and an exemplary total CRV matrix,in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 16 shows an exemplary ranked list of restaurants, in accordancewith various embodiments.

FIG. 17 shows an exemplary ranked list of restaurants including reasoncodes and an exemplary CRV matrix, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 18 shows an exemplary ranked list of restaurants including samplemessages, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 19 shows exemplary lists of previously visited restaurants, rankedrestaurants, restaurants ranked by popularity, and a final list, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 20 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for generatinga normalized popularity score, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 20 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayreview a recommended restaurant, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 21 shows an exemplary table including a plurality of transactionhistories, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 22 shows an exemplary table depicting an average transaction countassociated with a period of time, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 23 shows an exemplary table depicting a maximum transaction countassociated with a period of time, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 24A shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumermay receive a ranked restaurant, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 24B shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumermay review a ranked restaurant, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 24C shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumermay review a list of ranked restaurants, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 25 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayrate a merchant, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 26 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer hasrated a merchant, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 27 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayselect a word tag associated with a merchant, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 28 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer hasselected a word tag associated with a merchant, in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 29 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer hasselected a word tag associated with a merchant, in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 30 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer hasselected a word tag and a rating associated with a restaurant, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 31 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayenter a description of a merchant, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 32 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer isentering a description of a restaurant, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 33 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer hasentered a rating, a word tag, and a description of a restaurant, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 34 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayreview a restaurant, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 35 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for determininga service sentiment, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 36 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for determininga relative consumer cost, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 37 shows an exemplary table including a plurality of transactionsassociated with a merchant, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 38 shows an exemplary table including a mean ROC amount and astandard deviation ROC amount for a plurality of merchants, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 39 shows an exemplary table in which a merchant associated withfewer than a threshold number of ROCs is eliminated, in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 40 shows an exemplary table in which a merchant location associatedwith a lesser number of ROCs is eliminated, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 41 shows an exemplary table in which a plurality of ROC cutoffpoints are calculated, in accordance with various embodiments, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 42 shows an exemplary table in which a ROC is eliminated based upona ROC cutoff point, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 43 shows an exemplary table in which a mean ROC amount and standarddeviation ROC amount are recalculated, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 44 shows an exemplary table including a plurality of consumer sizesof wallet and an exemplary table including a plurality of averageconsumer sizes of wallet, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 45 shows an exemplary table including a mean ROC amount, a totalspend, a standard deviation ROC amount, and a consumer size of wallet,in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 46 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary process for determininga relative consumer cost, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 47 shows an exemplary table including a plurality of ROCsassociated with a plurality of merchants, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 48 shows an exemplary table organizing a plurality of ROCs bymerchant and ROC date, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 49 shows an exemplary cross-reference table associating a meal typewith a transaction time and a probable dining time as well as anexemplary table associating a ROC with a meal type, in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 50 shows an exemplary table including aggregated meal typeinformation associated with a merchant, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 51 shows an exemplary table including a percentage of ROCscorresponding to a range of ROC amounts, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 52 shows a table including a total number of ROCs organized by mealtype per merchant as well as a chart showing a price distributionassociated with a meal type, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 53 shows a flowchart depicting a process for determining a merchantstatus, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 54 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayreview a list of merchants associated with a reward, in accordance withvarious embodiments.

FIG. 55 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayreview a list of merchants with which the consumer has checked in, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 56 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayreview a variety of lists, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 57 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayreview a plurality of merchants with which the consumer has dined, inaccordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 58 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayreview a plurality of completed lists, in accordance with variousembodiments.

FIG. 59 shows a screenshot depicting an interface wherein a consumer mayreview a plurality of tailored lists, in accordance with variousembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure generally relates to filtering, and moreparticularly, to tailored marketing to consumers based on filtering. Thedetailed description of various embodiments herein makes reference tothe accompanying drawings, which show the exemplary embodiments by wayof illustration. While these exemplary embodiments are described insufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice thedisclosure, it should be understood that other embodiments may berealized and that logical and mechanical changes may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, thedetailed description herein is presented for purposes of illustrationonly and not of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of themethod or process descriptions may be executed in any order and are notlimited to the order presented. Moreover, any of the functions or stepsmay be outsourced to or performed by one or more third parties.Furthermore, any reference to singular includes plural embodiments, andany reference to more than one component may include a singularembodiment.

The phrases consumer, customer, user, account holder, account affiliate,cardmember or the like may be used interchangeably and shall include anyperson, group, entity, business, organization, business, software,hardware, machine and/or combination of these, and may, in variousembodiments, be associated with a transaction account, buy merchantofferings offered by one or more merchants using the account and/or belegally designated for performing transactions on the account,regardless of whether a physical card is associated with the account.For example, a consumer or account affiliate may include a transactionaccount owner, a transaction account user, an account affiliate, a childaccount user, a subsidiary account user, a beneficiary of an account, acustodian of an account, and/or any other person or entity affiliated orassociated with a transaction account.

A bank may be part of the systems described herein, and the bank may, invarious embodiments, represent other types of card issuing institutions,such as credit card companies, card sponsoring companies, or third partyissuers under contract with financial institutions. It is further notedthat other participants may be involved in some phases of a transaction,such as an intermediary settlement institution.

Phrases and terms similar to “business,” “merchant,” “serviceestablishment,” or “SE” may be used interchangeably with each other andshall mean any person, entity, distributor system, software and/orhardware that is a provider, broker and/or any other entity in thedistribution chain of goods or services. For example, a merchant may bea grocery store, a retail store, a restaurant, a travel agency, aservice provider, an on-line merchant and/or the like. In variousembodiments, a merchant may request payment for goods and/or servicessold to a customer or consumer who holds an account with a transactionaccount issuer.

Terms such as “transmit,” “communicate” and/or “deliver” may includesending electronic data from one system component to another over anetwork connection. Additionally, as used herein, “data” may includeinformation such as commands, queries, files, data for storage, and/orthe like in digital or any other form.

A “transaction” may include one or more approved authorizations.Moreover, the phrase “transaction data” may comprise data associatedwith one or more transactions. In various embodiments, an authorizationmay be approved by a payment processor in response to a transactionrequest, which may be initiated by a consumer and/or a merchant.

Phrases and terms similar to “item” may include any good, service,information, experience, data, content, access, rental, lease,contribution, account, credit, debit, benefit, right, reward, points,coupons, credits, monetary equivalent, anything of value, something ofminimal or no value, monetary value, offer, merchant, type of merchant,demographic data, preference data, consumer profile data, consumerprofile, type of transaction account, transaction account, period oftime (e.g., a period of time a consumer has been a customer of atransaction account issuer), size of wallet, share of wallet,information, and/or the like. Further, in various embodiments, an itemmay comprise an input to and/or an output of a collaborative filteringor recommendation algorithm.

An “offer” may comprise any data and/or information. An offer maycomprise one or more items. In addition, an offer may comprise dataassociated with one or more items. An offer may further comprise one ormore characteristics or metadata. The characteristics or metadataassociated with an offer may describe one or more attributes associatedwith the offer. Further, in various embodiments, an offer may comprisean offer to purchase good or service offered for sale by a merchant orSE. Similarly, in various embodiments, an offer may be associated with amerchant or SE.

A “record of charge” or “ROC” may comprise a record of a transaction orcharge by a consumer with a particular merchant. In various embodiments,a ROC may correspond to an individual transaction. Further, in variousembodiments, a ROC may comprise a cumulative value, which may indicate anumber of total transactions (e.g., purchases) a consumer has made witha particular merchant. Further still, in various embodiments, a ROC maysimply comprise an indication that a consumer has conducted at least onetransaction with a merchant (e.g., within a particular time period). Forinstance, where a consumer's transaction history shows that the consumerhas made at least one purchase from a merchant (e.g., within 12 months),a ROC may simply comprise a binary value, such as a “1” or a “yes.”Conversely, where a consumer's transaction history indicates that aconsumer has not made a purchase from a merchant, a ROC may simplycomprise a value such as a “0” or a “no”. Various embodiments may bedescribed with respect to purchases; however, the system contemplatesany transaction in association with the system.

A “channel” may include any system or method for delivering contentand/or the content itself. The content may be presented in any form ormedium, and in various embodiments, the content may be deliveredelectronically and/or capable of being presented electronically. Forexample, a channel may comprise a website, a uniform resource locator(“URL”), a document (e.g., a Microsoft Word document, a Microsoft Exceldocument, an Adobe pdf document, etc.), an “ebook,” an “emagazine,” anapplication or micro-application (as described herein), a text message,an email, and/or the like. In various embodiments, a channel may behosted or provided by a data partner. Further, in various embodiments, achannel may comprise a social media channel, such as FACEBOOK,FOURSQUARE, TWITTER, and/or the like.

A “consumer profile” or “consumer profile data” may comprise anyinformation or data about a consumer that describes an attributeassociated with the consumer (e.g., a preference, an interest,demographic information, personally identifying information, and/or thelike). In various embodiments, a consumer profile may be based upon avariety of data. For example, a consumer profile may be based upon datathat is received, culled, collected, and/or derived from a variety ofsources, such as a consumer's transaction history, data associated withor available via a consumer's social networking profile (e.g., aconsumer's FACEBOOK profile), data associated with a customer's physicallocation, and/or other publicly and/or privately available sources ofinformation about a consumer. In various embodiments, a consumer profilemay not be based upon such data, unless a consumer opts in or requeststhat such data be used.

Further, in various embodiments, a consumer profile may be based upondata contributed by a consumer, a merchant, a third party, and/or an SE(as described herein). Such data may comprise, for example, a consumer'spersonal information, e.g., demographic information, a consumer's dateof birth, a consumer's residence information, an address of theconsumer's work, a specific preference associated with the consumer(e.g., a preference for a certain type of vacation, such as a preferencefor a tropical vacation), a website in which the consumer is interested,and/or the like. Further, a consumer may contribute data towards aconsumer profile by way of a form and/or questionnaire, such as, forexample, a web-based form or questionnaire.

With further regard to the types of data which may be contributed to aconsumer profile, in general, any information that a consumer would liketo serve as a basis for a consumer profile may be contributed. Forinstance, a consumer profile may comprise location data (e.g., dataassociated with a global positioning system, a home address, a workaddress, family location data, data about a consumer's most shopped orfavorite shopping locations, data about a consumer's most visited orfavorite places), data associated with a consumer's favorite websites,digital destinations, or magazines (e.g., blogs, news websites, shoppingwebsites, research websites, financial websites, etc.), personal data(e.g., email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, ageinformation, income information, expenses information, etc.), dataassociated with a consumer's status or mode of travel (e.g., vacationdata, business data, personal data, airline data, lodging data, etc.),data associated with a consumer's favorite items (e.g., food,restaurants, groceries, electronics, music, gaming, clothing types,hobbies, fitness, etc.), and/or the like.

In addition, in various embodiments, a consumer profile may includeonline tracking cookie data, web beacon data, web tracking data, webpacket trace data, digital fingerprint data, clickstream data, purchaseor transaction history data, data entered by a consumer in a web basedform, data purchased by a merchant about a consumer, social networkingdata, banking and/or credit card data, stock keeping unit (“SKU”) data,transactional and/or budget data, coupon data, retail data (e.g., itemspurchased, wish lists, etc.), data from third party personal dataaggregators, search engine data, and/or any other data which themerchant may have in its possession or to which the merchant may gainaccess.

In various embodiments, a consumer may specify that a consumer profilemay be based upon certain data, but that the profile should not be basedupon other data. For example, a consumer may specify that the consumer'sprofile may be based upon data associated with the consumer'stransaction history, but may not be based upon data culled from theconsumer's social networking profile.

Phrases and terms similar to “account,” “transaction account,”“account,” “account number,” “account code,” and/or “consumer account”may include any account that may be used to facilitate a transaction(e.g., financial transaction). These accounts may include any device,code (e.g., one or more of an authorization/access code, personalidentification number (“PIN”), Internet code, other identification code,and/or the like), number, letter, symbol, digital certificate, smartchip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the consumer to access,interact with or communicate with the system. The account number mayoptionally be located on or associated with a rewards account, chargeaccount, credit account, debit account, prepaid account, telephone card,embossed card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card,transponder, radio frequency card and/or an associated account.

Further, the phrase “size of wallet” may refer to a consumer's orbusiness' total aggregate spending. Likewise, as used herein, the phrase“share of wallet” may represent how a customer uses different paymentinstruments. A size of wallet and a share of wallet may, for example, bedetermined as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/978,298filed, Oct. 29, 2004, and entitled Method and Apparatus for Estimatingthe Spend Capacity of Consumers, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety for all purposes.

In general, although embodiments are described with additional detailherein, an item may be tailored to a consumer based upon a collaborativefiltering algorithm. In various embodiments, a collaborative filteringalgorithm may identify items that are relevant to one or more consumers.For example, a collaborative filtering algorithm may assign a score toone or more items, where the score may be based on information such as aconsumer profile, a transaction history associated with a consumer,social data (e.g., data associated with a social media channel, such asFOURSQUARE, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and/or the like), demographic data,clickstream data, consumer feedback data, and/or the like. Thus, a scoremay identify relevant items based upon a variety of informationassociated with a consumer.

Moreover, in various embodiments, an item may be tailored to a consumerbased on a merchant's needs (e.g., that the merchant is interested inrewarding existing loyal customers and/or that the merchant would liketo acquire new customers). Further still, in various embodiments, anitem may be tailored to a particular consumer based upon a businessrule, such as, for example, that it is a holiday, that it is aparticular time of day, that the consumer is traveling, that the item isassociated with a merchant who is some distance away and/or near to fromthe consumer's location, that the consumer has indicated a preferencenot to receive the item (e.g., the consumer has given the item a “thumbsdown”), and/or the like.

In operation, social data may be used to determine how an item isdisplayed to a consumer or to modify a predetermined ranking. Forexample, an offer presented through FACEBOOK may comprise or beassociated with criteria (e.g., keywords, metadata, and/or the like).Social data from FACEBOOK may be captured and compared to the criteria.Where there is a match or association between the criteria and thesocial data, the offer may be ranked higher, associated with a higherrank (e.g., higher number) or displayed more prominently based on thematch or association. Business rules may be employed to define how amatch or association is determined. The business rules may include thatthe social data partially match or associate with the criteria. Thebusiness rules may include that the social data exactly match orassociate with the criteria. An exact match or association may be usedto adjust the ranking of an offer (where the offer was previously rankedbased on other data associated with the customer) to ensure that thesocial data adjusts the ranking in a manner that is relevant anddesirable for the customer.

For example, company A may have a FACEBOOK page that a customer can“like.” Another party may also have a FACEBOOK page that is critical ofcompany A that a customer can “like.” If the customer “likes” companyA's FACEBOOK page, that social data may be used to promote or adjust therankings of an offer from company A based on the direct match. However,if the customer “likes” the FACEBOOK page that is critical of company A,the social data may be ignored with respect to the ranking of an offerfrom company A or may be used to lower the ranking of the offer fromcompany A.

Rankings of offers may also be adjusted based on other types of socialdata such as customer broadcasts. For example, a customer using TWITTERmay broadcast tweets comprising hashtags and/or any other identifiers orkeywords. The hashtag, identifier, and/or keyword data may be captured(e.g., via an API interfacing with Twitter, or being on a Twitterdistribution list) and used to adjust offers associated with thehashtag, identifier, and/or keyword. The hashtag, identifier, and/orkeyword data may be compared to criteria associated with the offer. Thehashtag, identifier, and/or keyword data may also be evaluated toidentify a customer's interests, hobbies, and/or preferences. Thisknowledge of the customer may affect the ranking of particular offersassociated with any interest, hobby, or preference (e.g., if an offer isrelevant to a particular customer, the ranking of the offer may beincreased).

Accordingly, and with reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary recommendersystem 100 for tailoring and/or recommending an item (e.g., an offer, amerchant, a restaurant, etc.) to a consumer is disclosed. In variousembodiments, system 100 may comprise an item database 102, an itemeligibility system 104, a scoring system 106, a real time system 108, anetwork 110, a web client 112, a fulfillment system 114, and/or amerchant reporting system 116.

An item database 102 may comprise hardware and/or software capable ofstoring data. For example, an item database 102 may comprise a serverappliance running a suitable server operating system (e.g., MICROSOFTINTERNET INFORMATION SERVICES or, “IIS”) and having database software(e.g., ORACLE) installed thereon. In various embodiments, an itemdatabase 102 may store one or more items, such as one or more offers,associated, for example, with one or more merchants. An item database102 may also store information associated with one or more items, suchas information associated with one or more offers, one or moremerchants, one or more recommendations and/or the like.

An item eligibility system 104 may comprise hardware and/or softwarecapable of determining whether a consumer is eligible to receive an itemand/or information related to an item (e.g., an offer, informationassociated with a merchant). For example, in various embodiments, anitem eligibility system 104 may determine that a consumer is ineligibleto receive an offer based upon a partnership and/or an affiliationassociated with a transaction account of the consumer (e.g., an AMERICANEXPRESS Airline A customer may be ineligible to receive an offer on anairline that is not Airline A).

A scoring system 106 may comprise hardware and/or software capable ofscoring an item. For example, in various embodiments (as describedherein), a scoring system 106 may analyze a variety of consumerinformation to score an item, such as an offer and/or a merchant.Moreover, in various embodiments a scoring system 106 may comprise avariety of “closed loop” or internal data associated with a consumer(e.g., as described herein).

A real time system 108 may comprise hardware and/or software capable ofadjusting the relevance of an item (e.g., a scored offer and/ormerchant) based upon a variety of criteria, such as one or more merchantcriteria, one or more business rules, and/or the like. For example, asdescribed herein, a real time system 108 may adjust the relevance of anoffer based upon a merchant interest in acquiring new customers, amerchant interest in rewarding loyal customers, a holiday, a particulartime of day, that the consumer is traveling, that the offer isassociated with a merchant who is some distance away from and/or near tothe consumer's location, that the consumer has indicated a preferencenot to receive an offer (e.g., the consumer has given the offer a“thumbs down”), and/or the like.

A network 110 may include any electronic communications system or methodwhich incorporates hardware and/or software components (e.g. a “cloud”or “cloud computing” system, as described herein). Communication amongparties via network 110 may be accomplished through any suitablecommunication channels, such as, for example, a telephone network, anextranet, an intranet, Internet, point of interaction device (point ofsale device, electronic device (e.g., IPHONE, PALM PILOT, BLACKBERRYcellular phone, tablet computer, kiosk, etc.), online communications,satellite communications, off-line communications, wirelesscommunications, transponder communications, local area network (LAN),wide area network (WAN), virtual private network (VPN), networked orlinked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or any suitable communication ordata input modality. Moreover, although system 100 is frequentlydescribed herein as being implemented with TCP/IP communicationsprotocols, the system may also be implemented using IPX, APPLETALK,IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec, SSH), or anynumber of existing or future protocols. If network 110 is in the natureof a public network, such as the Internet, it may be advantageous topresume network 110 to be insecure and open to eavesdroppers. Specificinformation related to the protocols, standards, and applicationsoftware utilized in connection with the Internet is generally known tothose skilled in the art and, as such, need not be detailed herein. See,for example, DILIP NAIK, INTERNET STANDARDS AND PROTOCOLS (1998); JAVA 2COMPLETE, various authors, (Sybex 1999); DEBORAH RAY AND ERIC RAY,MASTERING HTML 4.0 (1997); and LOSHIN, TCP/IP CLEARLY EXPLAINED (1997)and DAVID GOURLEY AND BRIAN TOTTY, HTTP, THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (2002),the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The various system components may be independently and separately orcollectively suitably coupled to network 110 via data links whichinclude, for example, a connection to an Internet Service Provider (ISP)over the local loop as is typically used in connection with standardmodem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN, DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communication methods, see,e.g., GILBERT HELD, UNDERSTANDING DATA COMMUNICATIONS (1996), which ishereby incorporated by reference. It is noted that network 110 may beimplemented variously, such as, for example, as an interactivetelevision (ITV) network. Moreover, this disclosure contemplates theuse, sale or distribution of any goods, services or information over anynetwork having similar functionality described herein.

As used herein, a “cloud” or “cloud computing” may describe a model forenabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool ofconfigurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage,applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and releasedwith minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Cloudcomputing may include location-independent computing, whereby sharedservers provide resources, software, and data to computers and otherdevices on demand. For more information regarding cloud computing, seethe NIST's (National Institute of Standards and Technology) definitionof cloud computing athttp://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf (lastvisited June 2012), which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

A web client 112 may include any device (e.g., a personal computer, amobile communications device, and/or the like) which communicates viaany network, for example such as those discussed herein. A web client112 may include one or more browsers or browser applications and/orapplication programs, including browser applications comprising Internetbrowsing software installed within a computing unit or a system toconduct online transactions and/or communications. For example, invarious embodiments, a web client 112 may include (and run) MICROSOFTINTERNET EXPLORER, MOZILLA FIREFOX, GOOGLE CHROME, APPLE SAFARI, and/orany software package available for browsing the Internet.

A computing unit or system may take the form of a computer or set ofcomputers, although other types of computing units or systems may beused, including tablets, laptops, notebooks, hand held computers,personal digital assistants, cellular phones, smart phones, set-topboxes, workstations, computer-servers, main frame computers,mini-computers, PC servers, pervasive computers, network sets ofcomputers, personal computers, such as IPADs, IMACs, and MACBOOKS,kiosks, terminals, point of sale (POS) devices and/or terminals,televisions, GPS receivers, in-dash vehicle displays, and/or any otherdevice capable of receiving data over a network. The computing unit ofthe web client 112 may be further equipped with an Internet browserconnected to the Internet or an intranet using standard dial-up, cable,DSL or any other Internet protocol known in the art. Transactionsoriginating at a web client 112 may pass through a firewall in order toprevent unauthorized access from users of other networks. Further,additional firewalls may be deployed between the varying components ofsystem 100 to further enhance security.

In various embodiments, a web client 112 may or may not be in directcontact with an application server. For example, a web client 112 mayaccess the services of an application server through another serverand/or hardware component, which may have a direct or indirectconnection to an Internet server. For example, a web client 112 maycommunicate with an application server via a load balancer and/or a webserver. In various embodiments, access is through a network or theInternet through a commercially-available web-browser software package.

A web client 112 may further include an operating system (e.g., WINDOWSNT/95/98/2000/XP/VISTA/7/8/CE/MOBILE, OS2, UNIX, Linux, SOLARIS, MACOS,PALMOS, etc.) as well as various conventional support software anddrivers typically associated with computers. A web client 112 may be ina home or business environment with access to a network. A web client112 may implement security protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)and Transport Layer Security (TLS). A web client 112 may furtherimplement several application layer protocols including http, https,ftp, and sftp.

A fulfillment system 114 may comprise any hardware and/or softwarecapable of fulfilling and/or facilitating fulfillment. For instance, afulfillment system 114 may, in various embodiments, comprise hardwareand/or software capable of fulfilling and/or facilitating fulfillment ofan offer. In various embodiments, a fulfillment system 114 may comprisea system, such as a system described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/779,734, filed, Jul. 18, 2007, and entitled Loyalty Incentive ProgramUsing Transaction Cards, which is incorporated herein by reference inits entirety. In addition, in various embodiments, a fulfillment system114 may comprise a system, such as a system described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/857,389, filed, Aug. 16, 2010, and entitledSystem and Method for E-Mail Based Rewards, which is incorporated hereinby reference in its entirety. In various embodiments, a fulfillmentsystem 114 may comprise a system, such as a system described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/153,890, filed, Jun. 6, 2011, andentitled System and Method for Administering Marketing Programs, whichis incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In variousembodiments, a fulfillment system 114 may comprise a system, such as asystem described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/021,327, filed,Feb. 4, 2011, and entitled Systems and Methods for Providing LocationBased Coupon-Less Offers to Registered Card Members, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In variousembodiments, a fulfillment system 114 may comprise a system, such as asystem described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/153,890, filed,Jun. 6, 2011, and entitled System and Method for Administering MarketingPrograms, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Invarious embodiments, a fulfillment system 114 may comprise a system,such as a system described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/188,693, filed, Jul. 22, 2011, and entitled System and Method forCoupon-Less Product Level Discounts, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety. In various embodiments, a fulfillment system114 may comprise a system, such as a system described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/411,281, filed, Mar. 2, 2012, and entitledSystem and Method for Providing Coupon-Less Discounts Based on a UserBroadcasted Message, which is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety. In various embodiments, a fulfillment system 114 may comprisea system, such as a system described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/439,768, filed, Apr. 4, 2012, and entitled System and Method forProviding International Coupon-Less Discounts, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

A merchant reporting system 116 may comprise any hardware and/orsoftware capable of generating a report and/or providing a report to amerchant. For example, in various embodiments, a merchant reportingsystem 116 may generate a report illustrating a ROI received by themerchant as the result of a tailored marketing campaign.

Referring broadly now to FIGS. 2-59, the process flows, logicalrepresentations, and/or screen shots depicted are merely embodiments andare not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. For example, thesteps recited in any of the method or process descriptions may beexecuted in any order and are not limited to the order presented. Itwill be appreciated that the following description makes appropriatereferences not only to the steps depicted in FIGS. 2-59 but also to thevarious system components and/or logical representations as describedabove with reference to FIG. 1. In addition, although FIGS. 2-59 mayvariously utilize and make reference to one or more matrices, tables,and/or the like, it will be appreciated that a variety of datastructures, data sets, and/or the like may be substituted and/orutilized with equal application to the process flows, logicalrepresentations, and/or screen shots depicted and discussed herein.

With reference to FIG. 2, a process 200 for tailoring and/orrecommending a relevant item, such as an offer and/or merchant, to aconsumer is described. In addition to the processes described herein, invarious embodiments, a process for tailoring marketing to a consumer asdescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/245,636, filed, Sep.26, 2011, and entitled Systems and Methods for Targeting Ad Impressions,which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, may beimplemented. Similarly, in various embodiments, a process for tailoringmarketing to a consumer as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/172,676, filed, Jun. 29, 2011, and entitled Spend Based Digital AdTargeting and Measurement, which is incorporated herein by reference inits entirety, may be implemented. Further, in various embodiments, aprocess may be implemented for tailoring marketing to a consumer asdescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/348,432, filed, Jan.11, 2012, and entitled Systems and Methods for Digital Spend BasedTargeting and Measurement, which is incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

Further still, in various embodiments and in addition to the processesdescribed herein, a process for tailoring marketing to a consumer may beimplemented as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/315,262,filed, Dec. 23, 2005, and entitled Method and Apparatus forCollaborative Filtering of Card Member Transactions, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In addition, invarious embodiments a process for tailoring marketing to a consumer maybe implemented as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/500,492, filed, Aug. 8, 2006, and entitled System and Method forPredicting Card Member Spending Using Collaborative Filtering, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Further still, in various embodiments and in addition to the processesdescribed herein, a process for tailoring marketing to a consumer may beimplemented as described in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.61/610,461, filed, Mar. 13, 2012, and entitled Generating MerchantRecommendations for Consumers, which is incorporated herein by referencein its entirety. In addition, in various embodiments a process fortailoring marketing to a consumer may be implemented as described inU.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/610,981, filed, Mar. 14,2012, and entitled Generating a Customer Review Using Customized Tags,which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Moreover, invarious embodiments a process for tailoring marketing to a consumer maybe implemented as described in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser.No. 61/610,983, filed, Mar. 14, 2012, and entitled Transaction RewardsList, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Referring broadly to FIG. 2, each of the steps 202-206 may be performedalone and/or in combination with any other step 202-206. Accordingly, asshown, in various embodiments, a consumer's eligibility may be assessed(step 202). As described herein, an item eligibility system 104 mayassess a consumer's eligibility to receive an item, such as an offerand/or information associated with a merchant. Furthermore, a consumermay be ineligible to receive an item for many reasons. For example, aconsumer may be ineligible to receive an item because the consumer holdsa transaction account (e.g., an AMERICAN EXPRESS Airline A account) thatis associated with a partner and/or merchant (e.g., Airline A) that isunaffiliated with (and/or a competitor of) an item associated withanother merchant (e.g., Airline B).

Further, in various embodiments, a consumer relevance value or score maybe determined (e.g., by a scoring system 106) (step 204). In variousembodiments, a consumer relevance value (or “CRV”) may be determinedbased on content and/or an industry associated with one or more items.Similarly, in various embodiments, a consumer relevance value may bedetermined based on a collaborative filtering algorithm, as describedherein. Further, in various embodiments, a consumer relevance value maybe based on either or both of content and/or a collaborative filteringalgorithm.

Further still, in various embodiments, a consumer relevance valueassociated with an item such as an offer and/or merchant may be adjustedand/or determined based on one or more merchant goals and/or one or morebusiness rules (e.g., by a real time system 108) (step 206). Forexample, as described herein, a consumer relevance value may be adjustedbased on a merchant goal to acquire only new customers, tailor existingcustomers of the merchant, and/or tailor all consumers. In variousembodiments, a consumer relevance value may be adjusted based on anysuitable adjustment parameter including, for example, a holiday, aparticular time of day, a determination that the consumer is traveling,a determination that the item is associated with a merchant who is somedistance away from and/or near to the consumer's location, because theconsumer has indicated a preference not to receive the item (e.g., theconsumer has given the offer a “thumbs down”), and/or the like.

With reference to FIGS. 3-6, a process 300 and screenshots fordetermining a consumer relevance value of an item are described. Invarious embodiments, a CRV may be determined based upon a collaborativefiltering algorithm. As shown, an “item to item similarity” may bedetermined (step 302). In general terms, an item to item similarity mayshow which pairings of items (e.g., merchants, demographics, etc.) occurmost often or are most strongly correlated. An item to item similaritymay be determined for many types of items, but for purposes ofillustration and in various embodiments, an item to item similaritybetween a plurality of merchants may be determined by comparing ROCs ofa plurality of consumers at the plurality of merchants.

To illustrate, and with particular attention now to FIG. 4A, an “itemmatrix” (e.g., item matrix 400A) may be arranged and/or generated. Invarious embodiments, an item matrix may comprise one or morecoefficients (and/or one or more rows and/or columns). Each coefficientof an item matrix may comprise a record associated with one or moreitems, such as an indication that an item is associated with anotheritem (e.g., a consumer with a merchant, a consumer and/or merchant withan interest, a consumer with a demographic, a merchant with ademographic, a consumer with another consumer, a consumer's profile withanother consumer's profile, a size or share of wallet with a consumer,an age attribute with a consumer, a gender with a consumer, a favoritecuisine with a consumer, and/or the like). So, for example, in variousembodiments, each coefficient may comprise a ROC of a consumer with amerchant. As described herein, a ROC may comprise an indication orrecord that a consumer has conducted a transaction with a merchantand/or a record of a number of transactions a consumer has made with amerchant. Where a ROC comprises a record of a number of transactions aconsumer has made, the ROC may be capped or limited to a particularmaximum value (e.g., a ROC may be limited to a value of “1,” “2,” etc.),so that a CRV (which is calculated as described herein) is not overlyskewed or distorted by a large number of ROCs. However, in variousembodiments, a ROC may not be capped to a maximum value.

Thus, in various embodiments, each column or row of an item matrix maycorrespond to a merchant and/or a consumer. For example, item matrix400A may include a first consumer's ROCs at one or more merchants or SEs(e.g., ROCs 402 a, 402 b, and/or 402 c of the consumer Alex at SE1, SE2,and/or SE3), which may be compared to ROCs of one or more otherconsumers at those merchants (e.g., ROCs 404 a, 404 b, and/or 404 cand/or ROCs 406 a, 406 b, and/or 406 c of the consumers Bob and Cara,respectively). In various embodiments, an item may comprise anyinformation associated with a merchant and/or a consumer, such as, forexample, one or more merchant characteristics, on or more consumercharacteristics, one or more consumer profiles and/or informationcomprising a consumer profile, demographic information associated with aconsumer and/or a merchant, consumer and/or merchant feedback, and thelike.

In various embodiments, coefficients of an item matrix may be compared,and a correlation or similarity between items, (i.e., “item to itemsimilarity”), may be determined based upon the comparison. For instance,in various embodiments, coefficients of an item matrix may be compared,and an item to item similarity between items may be determined based onone or more methods. More particularly, in various embodiments, an itemto item similarity may be determined based on a co-occurrence method, acosine method, and/or the like. Broadly, a co-occurrence method maydetermine, in various embodiments and as described herein, how manytimes one or more items occur together. Similarly, a cosine method maybe used to determine, in various embodiments, a distance between twovectors (e.g., where a vector may comprise one or more coefficients inan item matrix).

Where coefficients comprise ROCs, a comparison of ROCs (e.g., using aco-occurrence method) of a plurality of consumers at one or moremerchants (e.g., ROCs 402 a, 402 b, 402 c, 404 a, 404 b, 404 c, 406 a,406 b, and/or 406 c) may show that two consumers (e.g., Bob and Cara)have a ROC at both SE1 and at SE2. Likewise, the comparison may showthat two consumers (e.g., Alex and Cara) have a ROC at SE3, but thatonly one of those consumers (e.g., Cara) also has a ROC at SE1.Similarly, the comparison may show that two consumers (e.g., Bob andCara) have a ROC at SE2, while only one of those consumers (e.g., Cara)has a ROC at SE3.

As such, a comparison may show ROCs by more than one consumer (e.g., Boband Cara) at a plurality of merchants (e.g., SE1 and SE2), and this maysuggest a correlation or similarity (i.e., an item to item similarity)between these merchants. In other words, the correlation may show atendency by consumers like Bob and Cara to conduct transactions withthese merchants. Similarly, the existence of ROCs by a first consumer ata first merchant (e.g., Alex at only SE3) and ROCs by a second consumerat a plurality of merchants including the first merchant (e.g., Cara atSE1, SE2, and SE3) may suggest an item to item similarity between thefirst merchant and the plurality of merchants (e.g., between SE3 and SE1and between SE3 and SE2).

Therefore, where an item to item similarity is based on ROCs of a firstconsumer at a first merchant and ROCs by a second consumer at aplurality of merchants including the first merchant, as described above,the item to item similarity between merchants (e.g., between SE3 and SE1and between SE3 and SE2) may not be as pronounced or strong as an itemto item similarity, for example, between merchants (e.g., SE1 and SE2)from whom each consumer conducted a transaction. In other words, acomparison may suggest a more pronounced, stronger, and/or greater itemto item similarity between merchants when consumers (e.g., Bob and Caraat SE1 and SE2) each shop at the merchants than when consumers shop atsome merchants (e.g., Alex and Cara shop at SE3) but not all merchants(e.g., Alex does not shop at SE1 and SE2). Thus, in simple terms, anitem to item similarity may demonstrate or suggest a sort of “wisdom ofthe people,” with which a tendency of certain consumers to transact withone merchant may suggest an interest by other consumers in that merchantand/or in other merchants from whom the consumer may transact.

In various embodiments, and with attention now to FIG. 4B, an item toitem similarity may correspond to a numerical value (an “item to itemsimilarity value”), and this value may be determined based upon acomparison as described above (e.g., a comparison of ROCs of one or moreconsumers at a plurality of merchants). In particular, an item to itemsimilarity value may be based upon the number of consumers two merchantsshare in common. Moreover, one or more item to item similarity valuesmay be arranged in an “item to item similarity matrix” (e.g., item toitem similarity matrix 400B), in which each coefficient corresponds toan item to item similarity value, and in which each row and/or columnmay correspond to a particular item or merchant. Thus, an item to itemsimilarity value may describe, as discussed herein, the similarity ofone item to another (e.g., where greater values correspond to morepronounced or stronger item to item similarities between items such asmerchants).

For instance, an item to item similarity matrix 400B may comprise afirst item to item similarity value 408 of “2.” The value 408 may beassigned to SE1 and SE2, because these two merchants have two consumers(e.g., Bob and Cara) in common. Likewise, an item to item similarityvalue 410 of “1” may be assigned to SE1 and SE3, because, only one ofthese two merchants (e.g., SE3) has ROCs for both consumers (e.g., Alexand Cara both shop at SE3, but only Cara shops at SE1). And, an item toitem similarity value 412 of “1” may be similarly assigned to SE2 andSE3, because, as the example shows, only one of these two merchants(e.g., SE2) has ROCs for both consumers (e.g., Bob and Cara may bothshop at SE2, but only Cara shops at SE3). Thus, an item to itemsimilarity value may, in various embodiments, be based upon aco-occurrence between items (e.g., the number of consumers withco-occurring ROCs at a plurality of merchants).

In addition, although items may be scored (e.g., associated with an itemto item similarity value and/or a CRV, as described herein) with acollaborative filtering algorithm, in various embodiments, an item maybe scored based upon its content. For example, where a first itemcomprises an offer to eat at a particular type of restaurant (e.g., aChinese restaurant), a second item may be scored based upon itssimilarity to the first item. So, for example, where a consumer'stransaction history, consumer profile, social data, feedback data,click-through data, etc. show that the consumer has eaten at and/oraccepted an offer related to a first type of restaurant, offers relatedto similar restaurants may be tailored to the consumer. Further, asdescribed herein, an item may be scored based upon a combinedcollaborative filtering and/or content based process, in which case bothtypes of scoring may simply apply and/or contribute to an item's overallor collective score.

With continuing regard to FIG. 3 and with special attention now to FIGS.5A through 5C, a CRV may be determined or calculated (step 304). Invarious embodiments, a CRV may describe a relevance of an item (e.g., amerchant, an offer associated with the merchant) to a consumer. In otherwords, a CRV may describe a likelihood or probability that a consumerwill be interested in a particular item (e.g., a merchant and/or anoffer from a merchant).

Accordingly, in various embodiments, a CRV may be determined based on anitem to item similarity and/or an item to item similarity value, aconsumer transaction history, a demographic, a consumer profile, a sizeof wallet, social data, time and/or date information, consumer and/ormerchant feedback, and/or the like. For instance, in variousembodiments, a CRV may be calculated by multiplying an item to itemsimilarity value by a consumer transaction history. More particularly,in various embodiments, a “consumer relevance matrix” or “CRV matrix”comprising one or more CRVs may be determined or calculated bymultiplying an item matrix by an item to item similarity matrix. Thus,each coefficient of a CRV matrix may comprise a CRV.

Many additional examples and/or implementations are possible. Withregard to FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C, CRVs for the consumer Dan to each of thethree merchants, SE1, SE2, and SE3 may be obtained by multiplying therow vector corresponding to Dan in the consumer item matrix 500B to eachcolumn vector corresponding to the three SEs in the item to itemsimilarity matrix 500A. As shown in FIG. 5C, a CRV matrix 500C maycomprise CRVs for one or more consumers to one or more items (e.g.,merchants, offers associated with one or more merchants, and/or thelike). To illustrate, a calculation may be performed for the consumerDan as follows:

Dan's CR to SE1: 508a*502a+508b*504a+508c*506a=1*0+0*2+0*1=0

Dan's CR to SE2: 508a*502b+508b*504b+508c*506b=1*2+0*0+0*1=2

Dan's CR to SE3: 508a*502c+508b*504c+508c*506c=1*1+0*1+0*0=1

Accordingly, as shown, the consumer Dan has CRVs of “0” to SE1, “2” toSE2, and “1” to SE3. These values may indicate, for example, that Dan ismost likely to have an interest in the merchant SE2 (and/or offers fromor recommendations for the merchant SE2), while he is less likely tohave an interest in the merchant SE3, and least likely to have aninterest in the merchant SE1. That is, in other words and in variousembodiments, greater consumer relevance values may indicate that aconsumer is more likely to have an interest in an item, while lesservalues may indicate that a consumer is less likely to have an interestin an item.

In various embodiments, a CRV may be determined based upon any item (asdescribed herein). For example, a CRV may be determined based on aconsumer profile, transaction data, demographic data, a type oftransaction account, a transaction account, a period of time (e.g., aperiod of time a consumer has been a customer of a transaction accountissuer), a size of wallet, a share of wallet, an output of acollaborative filtering algorithm, a preference, and/or the like. Forinstance, a CRV may be determined based on data comprising a consumerprofile (e.g., demographic data) where, for example, a consumer is notassociated with a transaction history (e.g., the consumer may hold anunused transaction account). Moreover, in various embodiments, consumerprofile data, demographic data, and/or the like may be used (aloneand/or in conjunction with a transaction history such as ROC data) todetermine a CRV even if a consumer is associated with a transactionhistory.

More particularly, in various embodiments, a CRV may be determined basedon a consumer profile, demographic information, social data, time and/ordate information, consumer and/or merchant feedback, and/or the like byincluding the item as part of an item matrix and/or as part of an itemto item similarity matrix, as described herein. An illustrative item toitem similarity matrix that includes demographic information is shown inFIG. 6, and a CRV may be calculated, as described herein, by multiplyingan item matrix including such information by an item to item similaritymatrix that also includes such information. With regard to an item toitem similarity matrix that includes demographic (or other) information,an item such as a merchant may, in various embodiments, be associatedwith a particular demographic item based on, for example, a demographicof a consumer who may tend to shop with the merchant (e.g., consumers ina particular age range, consumers in a particular zip code, consumershaving a particular gender, etc.) Thus, a CRV may be determined basedupon a variety of items.

Further, in various embodiments, matrix coefficients, item to itemsimilarity values, CRVs, and/or the like, may be weighted or adjusted byan adjustment or weighting factor. For example, a coefficient (e.g., acoefficient in an item to item similarity matrix) may be weighted basedupon a likelihood that a consumer will perform a desired action, such asa likelihood that a consumer will transact with a merchant. Moreparticularly, in various embodiments, a coefficient in a matrix (e.g., acoefficient in an item to item similarity matrix) may be weighted moreheavily in response to a determination that the coefficient isassociated with a greater likelihood that a consumer will transact witha merchant. A coefficient may, similarly, be weighted less heavily inresponse to a determination that the coefficient is associated with areduced or lesser likelihood that a consumer will transact with amerchant. Thus, a coefficient (such as an item to item similarity valueand/or a CRV) may be adjusted or weighted based upon a likelihood that aconsumer will perform a desired action, such as transaction with amerchant, and this adjustment may be used to increase or maximize (orattempt to maximize) a chance of predicting that a consumer will performa desired action.

In various embodiments, a weighting or adjustment factor may becalculated based on one or more transaction histories. For example, ananalysis of the transaction histories of a plurality of consumers maysuggest that items such as a particular size of wallet and/or aparticular demographic may often co-occur with transactions by consumerswith a particular merchant. Where this is the case, a size of walletand/or a demographic may be weighted more heavily, while other items orfactors (e.g., ROCs) may be weighted less heavily, e.g., because asimilarity between ROCs and transactions with a particular consumer maybe less than a similarity between other items (e.g., share of wallet)and transactions with the consumer.

In various embodiments, each coefficient of a CRV matrix (e.g., CRVmatrix 500C) may be organized or ranked (e.g., as part of a ranked list(step 306)) and the ranking and/or ranked list may be used to tailoritems (e.g., offers, merchants, etc.) to consumers (e.g., as part of amerchant marketing campaign). For instance, with continued attention tothe foregoing example, each CRV may be ranked from most relevant toleast relevant and/or highest to lowest. Thus, with continuing referenceto the example provided above, a ranking and/or list may be generatedfor the consumer Dan which lists SE2 first, SE3 second, and SE1 last. Invarious embodiments, such a list may be used to recommend items and/ortailor items to a consumer (e.g., Dan). For example, a consumer mayreceive merchant offers and/or merchant identifiers associated with aCRV. Likewise, a consumer may receive a list of merchants and/or offersrelated to each item or merchant in a CRV matrix. A ranked list may beorganized according to CRV value. For instance, merchants and/or offersassociated with high CRVs may be displayed at the top of a list, whilemerchants and/or offers associated with lower CRVs may be displayednearer the bottom of a list.

With reference to FIG. 11, a process 1100 for adjusting a recommendationof an item, such as an offer, is described. As shown, a recommendationmay be adjusted based upon a merchant goal (step 1102), which a merchantmay establish as part of a marketing campaign, as described herein. Forinstance, in various embodiments, a ranking of CRVs, a list of rankeditems, and/or a list of ranked CRVs, as discussed above, may bereorganized or re-ranked based upon one or more merchant tailoring goals(step 1104). Similarly, in various embodiments, an item that mightotherwise be tailored and/or delivered to a consumer (e.g., based upon aranked list and/or a CRV) may not be tailored and/or delivered as aresult of process 1100.

A merchant goal may, in various embodiments, comprise an “acquisitiongoal,” a “loyalty goal,” and/or an “unlimited goal.” An acquisition goalmay comprise a goal to acquire new customers. A loyalty goal maycomprise a goal to reward or encourage additional spending by existingcustomers. An unlimited goal may comprise a goal to reach and/or tailormarketing to all consumers (e.g., all consumers based upon one or moreCRVs).

With reference to FIG. 7, an acquisition goal may be associated with aprocess 700 in which the tailoring of one or more items may be adjustedaccording to a merchant goal to acquire new customers. As shown, invarious embodiments, a location of a merchant (or “merchant location”)may be compared to a location of a consumer (or “consumer location”) todetermine whether the consumer may be a candidate for acquisition (step702). A consumer location may comprise, for example, a location in whicha consumer resides, such as a zip code in which a consumer lives (or“living location”) and/or one or more locations in which a consumerspends, such as one or more zip codes in which a consumer spends (or“spending location”). A consumer location may also be determined basedon an input from the consumer. For example, the consumer may be able toindicate a desired location on a map where the customer expects to be ata later time (e.g., through a computer interface). In addition, invarious embodiments, as described herein, a consumer location maycomprise a real-time physical location of a consumer. Where a consumerlocation comprises a real-time location (or “real-time consumerlocation”), the location may be based upon a global positioning systemsignal (“GPS”), triangulation or another positioning technique that usesa signal output by a consumer's web client 112, and/or the like.

Thus, in various embodiments, if a consumer location is within aparticular distance of a merchant location (e.g., one or two miles), theconsumer may be considered a candidate for acquisition and a tailoreditem transmitted to the consumer based, for example, upon a ranked listand/or a CRV matrix, as described herein (step 704). However, if aconsumer location is not within a particular distance of a merchantlocation, a consumer may not be considered a candidate for acquisition,because, although the consumer may be likely to accept the tailoreditem, the consumer may nevertheless be unlikely to return to themerchant as an existing customer due to the distance between theconsumer location and the merchant location.

Continuing, in various embodiments, a loyalty goal may be associatedwith a process in which tailored items are delivered to existingconsumers, provided, for example, that these consumers meet one or morecriteria. For example, information associated with a tailored item maybe delivered to an existing customer of a merchant provided the customerhas purchased from the merchant within a threshold time period (e.g.,the previous twelve months).

In various embodiments, with respect to an unlimited goal, such a goalmay simply indicate that a merchant wishes to tailor items to allconsumers (e.g., that the merchant wishes to tailor items to allconsumers based upon a collaborative filtering process, a ranked list, aCRV matrix, etc.). Thus, for example, consumers (whether existingcustomers or new customers) may receive information associated withtailored items based upon a CRV matrix, as described herein.

In various embodiments, and with reference now to FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C,and with particular reference to FIG. 8A, a merchant may (e.g., viainterface 800, such as a web based interface displayed by web client112) select a merchant goal (e.g., an unlimited goal to recommend to allconsumers, an acquisition goal to recommend to new customers, and/or aloyalty goal to recommend to existing customers). Moreover, withparticular reference to FIG. 8B, a merchant may, in various embodiments,place a variety of constraints on an item. For instance, as shown, amerchant may specify a type of item (e.g., an offer to receive a crediton a billing statement, and/or the like). Similarly, in variousembodiments, a merchant may specify that a particular item should bedelivered to a consumer provided the consumer meets a particularrestriction (e.g., that the consumer spends a threshold amount with themerchant, etc.) Further, a merchant may limit an item to a particularnumber or range of consumers (e.g., a merchant may limit an offer to10,000 consumers).

In addition, with particular reference to FIG. 8C, a merchant may selectone or more channels (e.g., one or more websites, one or more socialnetworks, and/or the like) that should feature an item. For example, invarious embodiments, a merchant may specify channels associated withentities such as AMERICAN EXPRESS, FOURSQUARE, FACEBOOK, TWITTER,GOOGLE, and/or the like. Similarly, in various embodiments, a merchantmay specify channels such as an electronic statement associated with aconsumer's transaction account, an application and/or micro-applicationassociated with web client 112, as described herein, and/or the like.Additionally, in various embodiments, a consumer may be associated withone or more preferred channels (e.g., via a consumer profile), and atailored item may be delivered to the consumer via the one or morepreferred channels. For example, a consumer may register to receiveinformation associated with tailored items via one or more preferredchannels (e.g., via an AMERICAN EXPRESS channel).

Further, in various embodiments, an item may be distributed or deliveredover one or more channels over time. For example, in variousembodiments, an offer may be distributed to a first channel or group ofchannels (e.g., FACEBOOK during the morning and evening hours (e.g.,based on a probability or assumption that a consumer is at home), whilethe same offer may be distributed to a second channel or group ofchannels (e.g., FOURSQUARE during the afternoon and/or from 8 am to 5pm, for example (e.g., based on a probability or assumption that aconsumer is not at home, but potentially shopping).

Further, in various embodiments, a ranking and/or ranked list of itemsand/or CRVs may be transmitted to a channel or channel owner fordelivery or further transmittal to one or more consumers. In variousembodiments, a channel or channel owner may not be allowed to re-rank alist and/or CRVs. However, in various embodiments, a channel or channelowner may be allowed to re-rank a list and/or CRVs in response tocertain actions by a consumer (e.g., an explicit indication of interestor non-interest by a consumer, such as a “like” or “dislike,” a thumbsup or thumbs down, and/or the like). Moreover, in various embodiments,an explicit indication of interest (e.g., a consumer “liking” the ACMEbrand) may permit a channel or channel owner to move or re-rank an item(e.g., at the top of a ranking and/or ranked list of items).

A merchant may pay for an item accepted by a consumer in a variety ofways. For instance, a merchant may pay for an accepted offer in responseto the offer being redeemed by a consumer and/or a merchant may pay foran offer or group of offers at a time the merchant selects or chooses tomake a number of offers, as described herein (e.g., see FIG. 8B). Inaddition, where a merchant pays only for accepted offers, a merchant mayin essence pay for performance. In other words, because a merchant mayonly pay for redeemed offers, the merchant need not be concerned aboutmaking a number of offers to consumers via system 100 (e.g., because themerchant would not pay for each offer unless redeemed).

Further, with reference to FIG. 9, a merchant may receive and/or view,in various embodiments, a marketing campaign report (e.g., report 900).A marketing campaign report 900 may show, for example, a ROI associatedwith a particular tailored marketing campaign. Moreover, in variousembodiments, a marketing campaign report 900 may show a ROI over thecourse of a particular campaign period (e.g., several weeks or months).Thus, a merchant may visualize an actual effectiveness of a tailoredmarketing campaign (i.e., an actual effectiveness because the merchantmay only be charged for accepted offers).

Returning now to FIG. 4, as discussed above, an item and/or CRV may beranked or re-ranked based upon one or more business rules (step 404).For example, in various embodiments, an item and/or CRV may be re-rankedin response to a holiday, in response to a particular time of day, inresponse to the consumer traveling, in response to an item beingassociated with a merchant who is some distance away and/or near to fromthe consumer's location, in response to a consumer indicating apreference to receive an item and/or not to receive the item (e.g., aconsumer giving an item a “thumbs up” and/or “thumbs down”), and/or thelike.

More particularly, in various embodiments, and for purposes ofillustration, an item and/or CRV may be up-ranked or down-ranked (i.e.,moved up or down in a list and/or increased or decreased in value) basedupon one or more of the foregoing criteria. For instance, an itemrelated to a holiday (e.g., a Halloween decoration) may be up-rankednear in time to the holiday (e.g., the Halloween holiday) and/ordown-ranked in response to the holiday not being near. Similarly, anitem related to dining (e.g., a dining offer at a restaurant, therestaurant itself, etc.) may be up-ranked around breakfast, lunch,and/or dinner time, and/or down-ranked at other times of day. Further,an item related to an activity or product that is not typicallyassociated with travel (e.g., home improvement) may be up-ranked if aconsumer is located in a living location and/or down-ranked if aconsumer is on travel or located away from a living zip code. Furtherstill, an item may be up-ranked and/or down-ranked based upon consumerfeedback (e.g., a consumer may give a thumbs up and/or thumbs down, forinstance, which may affect the ranking of an item and/or CRV).

In addition, an item associated with a merchant located a certaindistance from a consumer's living location and/or a consumer location(as described herein) may be up-ranked if the consumer location and/orliving location is within a certain distance of the merchant locationand/or down-ranked if the consumer location or living location is notwithin a certain distance of the merchant location. For example, an itemassociated with a merchant located a first distance from a consumerlocation (e.g., one-half mile) may receive a first up-ranking, while anitem associated with a merchant located a second distance from aconsumer location (e.g., two miles) may receive a second, lesser,up-ranking, and an item associated with a merchant located a thirddistance from a consumer location (e.g., fifteen miles) may receive athird, still lesser, up-ranking, and so on.

With reference now to FIGS. 10A-10E, a consumer may receive informationrelated to a recommended item (e.g., a tailored offer, informationassociated with a merchant, etc.) via, for example, a web client 112.For instance, with reference to FIG. 10A, a consumer, e.g., “Natasha,”may access her web client 112 to view one or more tailored offers (e.g.,for offers related to merchants such as Merchant A, Merchant B, MerchantC, and/or the like). These offers may be tailored to a consumer (e.g.,Natasha, in this example) as a result of one or more of the processesdescribed herein.

With reference to FIG. 10B, a consumer may select a particular item toreview details related to the item. For example, Natasha may select anoffer related to the merchant TARGET to review details related to theoffer. In various embodiments, a consumer (e.g., Natasha) may “Like” or“Dislike” an item, such as an offer and/or a merchant, (as describedherein), which may cause the item and/or other items related to themerchant to be re-ranked or down-ranked.

Having reviewed an offer, a consumer may, as shown with reference toFIG. 10C, select an option to add the item to a transaction instrumentor transaction account associated with the user. For instance, aconsumer may select an option, as shown, labeled “Add to my Card.”Selection of such an option may associate or “load” an item (e.g., anoffer) directly to a consumer's transaction account. Thus, a selecteditem may be couponlessly associated with a consumer's transactionaccount. A consumer may redeem such an offer (a “loaded offer”) withoutusing a coupon. For example, a consumer may make a purchase associatedwith a loaded offer (e.g., a purchase at Merchant A, for example), andthe consumer's transaction account may be automatically credited (e.g.,with a rebate) based upon the loaded offer. Thus, a consumer may quicklyand effortlessly redeem loaded offers.

In addition, in various embodiments, as shown with reference to FIG.10D, a consumer may review a plurality of offers associated with atransaction account, saved coupons or offers, expired offers, a savingshistory, offer settings, and/or the like. In addition, in variousembodiments, a consumer may filter one or more tailored items based uponone or more criteria (e.g., offers deemed special offers, a locationassociated with offers, and/or the like). For instance, as illustratedin FIG. 10E, a consumer may select an option to filter offers bylocation, in response to which, a consumer's web client 112 may displaya map showing a consumer location and/or one or more locationsassociated with one or more tailored items. For instance, in variousembodiments, a web client 112 may display a consumer location and alocation of a plurality of merchants associated with tailored offersand/or a location of one or more recommended or tailored merchantsthemselves. So, in various embodiments, a consumer may navigate to alocation associated with a tailored item, such as an offer and/ormerchant, according to its location.

Thus, as described above, one or more items may be tailored to aconsumer based upon a collaborative filtering process. For example, invarious embodiments, and as discussed, offers and/or merchants, to namea few items, may be tailored to a consumer.

Now, although systems and methods for tailoring a variety of items aredescribed in detail above, for purposes of illustration, morespecialized processes for tailoring one or more restaurants aredescribed herein. In addition, although the processes set forth hereinare described with respect to restaurants, the processes may apply, withcertain variations, to other types of items as well, e.g., othermerchants, offers, etc.

With reference to FIG. 12, a process for tailoring a recommendation foran item (e.g., a merchant such as a restaurant) to a consumer may bebased upon, as described herein, an item matrix 1200A. As shown, itemmatrix 1200A may comprise one or more coefficients, each of which may bebased upon a relationship between a consumer (e.g., Consumer A) and aparticular item (e.g., one of a plurality of restaurants, such as Rest1-Rest 5, one of a particular share of wallet attributes, such as SOWBucket A and SOW Bucket B, one of a plurality of age attributes, such asAge Bucket A and Age Bucket B, a gender, one of a plurality of favoritecuisine attributes, such as Italian and Japanese, and/or the like). Asdescribed above, a relationship between a consumer and a particular itemmay be determined based upon a consumer profile, a transaction historyassociated with a consumer, social data (e.g., data associated with asocial media channel, such as FOURSQUARE, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and/or thelike), demographic data, clickstream data, consumer feedback data,and/or the like. While the examples below discuss restaurants, it shouldbe understood that system 100 may be capable of recommending anysuitable item based on the process described herein.

With continuing reference to FIG. 12, a coefficient 1202A-1210A may, asdiscussed herein, be based upon a ROC between a restaurant (e.g., Rest1-Rest 5) and a consumer (e.g., Consumer A). Thus, as shown by itemmatrix 1200A, a consumer such as Consumer A may have zero ROCs with arestaurant, Rest 1, 7 ROCs with a restaurant, Rest 2, and so on.Further, as depicted, coefficient 1212A and/or 1214A may be based upon ashare of wallet attribute associated with a consumer. Likewise,coefficient 1216A and/or 1218A may be associated with an age attributeof a consumer, while in various embodiments, coefficient 1220A and/or1222A may be associated with a favorite cuisine attribute of a consumer.With respect to each of these attributes, a share of wallet (asdiscussed above) attribute may comprise a variable related to and/ordescribing a consumer's use or utilization of one or more transactioninstruments. Further, an age attribute may comprise an age or age groupof a consumer, and a favorite cuisine attribute may comprise, as shown,a type of cuisine associated with a consumer (as determined, forexample, from the consumer's transaction history, consumer profile,and/or the like).

In various embodiments, a coefficient may, as described above, comprisea total value associated with a particular item. For example, asillustrated in FIG. 12A, a coefficient such as coefficient 1204A maycomprise a value greater than one, which may indicate, for example, atotal number of items or instances of an item associated with aconsumer. Thus, with respect to coefficient 1204A, this coefficient mayindicate that a consumer has visited and/or purchased from a restaurant,Rest 2, a total of seven times. Moreover, in various embodiments, acoefficient having a value greater than one may be capped or truncatedto a value equal to or less than one. For example, as illustrated inFIG. 12B, a coefficient 1204B and/or 1206B may be truncated to a valueof one.

In various embodiments, a coefficient may, as described above, comprisea binary, or positive or negative, value associated with an item. Forinstance, a coefficient such as coefficient 1214A and/or 1216A maycomprise a zero value, which may simply indicate that a consumer is notassociated with a SOW attribute and/or an age attribute, respectively.Likewise, coefficient 1212A and/or 1218A may comprise a value of one,which may indicate that the consumer is associated with a particular SOWattribute and/or a particular age attribute, respectively.

Further, in various embodiments, a coefficient may comprise a non-wholenumber or a decimal fraction, e.g., 0.5, which may indicate that aconsumer is associated with a particular item (e.g., as shown, Italiancuisine, Japanese cuisine), but that such an attribute is consideredless indicative of a consumer's dining preferences than, for example, aROC of a consumer, a share of wallet of a consumer, and/or an age of aconsumer. A decimal fraction may also indicate, as discussed herein,that a coefficient has been adjusted by a weighting factor. Acoefficient may also comprise a non-whole or decimal fraction where, forexample, it is desirable to more precisely measure a consumer'srelationship to an item (greater values designating, for example,greater correlation between the consumer and the item).

With further regard to each item, as shown by item matrix 1200A, certainitems (e.g., SOW Attributes, Age Attributes, and/or the like) may begrouped or divided into “buckets.” In various embodiments, a bucket maysimply refer to a group or range. Thus, a SOW bucket may comprise arange of shares of wallet. Similarly, an age bucket may simply refer toa group or range of ages.

Thus, in general terms, a relationship of a consumer to a variety ofitems may be captured as part of item matrix 1200A and/or 1200B.Further, as described above, an item to item similarity matrix may begenerated based, for example, upon item matrix 1200A and/or 1200B.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 13, and as described above, an itemto item similarity matrix 1300A may be generated. Matrix 1300A may, invarious embodiments, identify a similarity between a first item and asecond item. For example, matrix 1300A may show that a gender item ofmale (M) is most similar to a merchant, Merch 45, second most similar toa merchant, Merch 12, third most similar to a share of wallet, SOWBucket A, and so on.

An item to item similarity matrix 1300A may be generated, as discussedabove with reference to FIGS. 4A and 4B, based upon a comparison of aplurality of coefficients comprising an item matrix (e.g., item matrices1200A and/or 1200B). For example, returning briefly to FIG. 4B forpurposes of explanation, an item to item similarity matrix 400B may begenerated, as discussed, such that matrix 400B includes one or more itemto item similarity values (e.g., values 408, 410, and 412). Toillustrate, each of the coefficients comprising a matrix 400B may becompared, and a matrix similar to matrix 1300A generated based upon thecomparison. Such a comparison would yield, with respect to matrix 400B,a matrix identifying SE2 as the first most similar item to the item SE1and SE3 as the second most similar to the item SE1. Thus, an item toitem similarity matrix 1300A may be organized or reorganized accordingto a coefficient or item to item similarity value such that matrix 1300Alists each item in descending or ascending order of similarity to aparticular other item.

With continuing reference to FIG. 13, in various embodiments, anybucketed or grouped items (e.g., SOW Bucket A, Age Bucket D, etc.) maybe removed from an item to item similarity matrix 1300A, where forexample, it is desirable to determine a similarity between non-bucketeditems (e.g., merchants or restaurants). Moreover, bucketed items thatcannot be recommended to a consumer or which are not desirablyrecommended to a consumer (such as age) may be removed from an item toitem similarity matrix 1300A.

An item to item similarity matrix 1300B is shown in which each bucketeditem has been removed. Where an item (e.g., Merch 67) is locatedadjacent to a one or more bucketed items (e.g., SOW Bucket A) which areeliminated, the adjacent item may be moved within matrix 1300B into thelocation of the leftmost eliminated bucketed item (e.g., as describedwith reference to matrix 1300B, Merch 67 may move into the position ofSOW Bucket A as the third most similar item to the item Gender (M)).

With reference now to FIG. 14, an item to item similarity matrix 1400Amay, in addition to identifying a first most similar item, a second mostsimilar item, a third most similar item, etc., also identify or show anitem to item similarity value, as described above. For example, as shownby matrix 1400A, a Restaurant 5 may be first most similar to aRestaurant 1, and these restaurants may share an item to item similarityvalue of four. Likewise, a Restaurant 6 may be second most similar to aRestaurant 5, and these restaurants may share an item to item similarityvalue of two.

Further, in various embodiments, an item to item similarity value may beadjusted by a weight or weighting factor. In general, a weighting factormay be based upon a regression analysis of CRVs, which may be calculatedas discussed herein.

So, for instance, in various embodiments, a CRV may be calculatedaccording to the following formula: β1*Z1+β2*Z2+β3*Z3+β4*Z4, where eachZ value represents an item to item similarity value, and each β valuerepresents an association of an item with a particular consumer (i.e.,each β value may represent a coefficient in an item matrix).

More particularly, and for example, a CRV “Z1” as shown in FIG. 14, maybe calculated for a consumer (e.g., Consumer A) in connection with aparticular restaurant (e.g., Restaurant 5) by multiplying eachcoefficient representing a restaurant visited by the consumer, asindicated by the coefficients in item matrix 1400B, by the item to itemsimilarity value of each of these restaurants to Restaurant 5. Toillustrate, a CRV Z1 may be calculated according to the formula providedabove as follows, where each value is followed, for the purpose ofexplanation, by a parenthetical to aid understanding:

Z1=1(Consumer A visited Rest 1)*4(the item to item similarity value ofRest 1 to Rest 5)+0(Consumer A did not visit Rest 2)*0(the item to itemsimilarity value of Rest 2 to Rest 5)+0(Consumer A did not visit Rest3)*1(the item to item similarity value of Rest 3to Rest 5)+0(Consumer Adid not visit Rest 4)*2(the item to item similarity value of Rest 4 toRest 5)=4.

Similarly, CRVs, Z2, Z3, and Z4 may be calculated for a consumer (e.g.,Consumer A) in connection with each of a variety of other items. Forexample, CRVs may be calculated for a SOW attribute, an age attribute,and/or a favorite cuisine attribute. As discussed above, this may beaccomplished by multiplying each coefficient representing an itemattribute associated with a consumer by the item to item similarityvalue of each of these item attributes to a restaurant (e.g., as above,Rest 5). Thus, for example, Z2, Z3, and Z4 may be calculated as followsfor a variety of other items:

Z2=1(Consumer A is associated with SOW A)*4(the item to item similarityof SOW A to Rest 5)+0(Consumer A is not associated with SOW B)*1(theitem to item similarity of SOW B to Rest 5)=4

Z3=0*2+1*0=0

Z4=0*1+0.5*4=2

Thus, a variety of CRVs may be calculated for a consumer with respect toa particular restaurant based upon an item to item similarity betweenthe restaurant and a variety of other items (e.g., other restaurants,other item attributes such as SOW, age, favorite cuisine, etc.)

In various embodiments, having calculated a variety of CRVs, eachcorresponding to a consumer in connection with an item, a regressionmatrix may be generated according to the following equation:Z1+Z2+Z3+Z4=Y, where the variable Y may take a value of “1” in the eventthat a consumer visited a restaurant and/or was associated with an itemduring a particular period of time. Thus, a first row of a regressionmatrix may, with the Z values derived above, be generated as follows:[Z1 Z2 Z3 Z4] [Y], or [4 4 0 2] [1]. Here, Y may take a value of “1,”because, for example, Consumer A visited Rest 5 during a particularperiod of time. Further, in various embodiments, a dataset of consumertransactions may be broken out or divided into two subsets based upon atime period during which each transaction in the dataset occurred. Forexample, for twelve months of transaction data, transactions occurringduring a first period (e.g., the first nine months of the twelve monthperiod) may be grouped as “post-period” data, while transactionsoccurring during a second period (e.g., the last three months of thetwelve month period) may be grouped as “pre-period” data. Thus,regression matrices may be formulated for a variety of periods (e.g.,pre and/or post-periods).

In various embodiments, a regression matrix may be expanded according tothe process discussed above by calculating CRVs for a consumer (e.g.,Consumer A) in connection with a plurality of other restaurants, e.g.,Rest 6, Rest 7, Rest 8, etc. Further, in various embodiments, aregression matrix may serve as the basis for a regression analysis, suchas a logistic regression analysis, which may yield a weighting to beapplied to one or more groups of items, e.g., groups Z1, Z2, Z3, Z4,etc.

With reference to FIG. 15, a CRV matrix 1500A may, as shown, begenerated for a consumer. CRV matrix 1500A may comprise one or moreweighted (or unweighted) CRVs for a consumer. For example, with respectto the CRVs Z1, Z2, Z3, and Z4 calculated above for Consumer A andrelating to Rest 5, a CRV matrix may resemble the following matrix [4 40 2]. Likewise, in various embodiments, a CRV matrix for each of theCRVs calculated above may also resemble [(4*w1) (4*w2) (0*w3) (2*w4)],where w1-w4 are weighting factors calculated as described above.Similarly, in various embodiments, a CRV matrix may be calculated asdiscussed above based upon weighted item to item similarity values.Thus, a weighting factor may be applied variously.

With continuing reference to FIG. 15, a plurality of CRVs comprising CRVmatrix 1500A may form the basis for a total CRV matrix 1500B. Moreparticularly, in various embodiments, each CRV related to a restaurantfor a consumer (e.g., as shown, Rest 6) may be used to generate totalCRV matrix 1500B. Further, each of these CRVs may be summed oraggregated to obtain a total CRV, as shown in the rightmost column ofmatrix 1500B. A total CRV may represent, for each restaurant, anaggregate consumer relevance value associated with that restaurant for aparticular consumer based upon, as described above, a variety ofcalculated CRVs for the customer to the restaurant.

With attention to FIG. 16, a plurality of total CRVs (or restaurantsassociated with total CRVs) may be ranked from greatest to least, leastto greatest, etc. to form a table or list of restaurants 1600. List 1600may rank a plurality of restaurants in order of relevance to a consumer.Thus, with respect to list 1600, a restaurant, Rest 16, may be mostrelevant to a consumer, a restaurant, Rest 19, may be second mostrelevant to a consumer, and so on. Further, in various embodiments, aplurality of restaurants may be ranked simply based upon a CRVassociated with each.

Referring to FIG. 17, a reason or reason code may be determined for eachrestaurant in a ranked list 1700A of restaurants. A reason code maycomprise a greatest or most significant CRV and/or restaurantcontributing to a total CRV. For example, and with reference to CRVmatrix 1700B, matrix 1700B may show that the most significant individualCRV contributing to the position of the restaurant, Rest 8, on rankedlist 1700A of restaurants, is the CRV of Rest 8 to the restaurant, Rest3 (with a CRV of 0.8). Likewise, matrix 1700B may show that the mostsignificant individual CRV contributing to the position of therestaurant, Rest 6, on ranked list 1700A of restaurants, is the CRV ofRest 6 to the restaurant, Rest 3 (with a CRV of 1.2). Thus, a reason orreason code may simply comprise a restaurant and/or an item that mostsignificantly contributed to a total CRV of another restaurant and/oritem.

With reference to FIG. 18, a ranked list of restaurants 1800 may beorganized as shown. In addition, ranked list of restaurants 1800 mayinclude a reason or reason code as described above. Further, ranked listof restaurants 1800 may include a message 1802, 1804, and/or 1806indicating a reason for adding a restaurant to ranked list 1800. Thus,as shown, message 1802 and/or 1804 may indicate that a restaurant wasrecommended because a consumer dined at a restaurant having an item toitem similarity with the recommended or listed restaurant. As discussedabove, the recommendation may be based upon a total CRV. Thus, invarious embodiments, message 1802 and/or 1804 may be based upon a CRVthat most significantly contributes to a restaurant's ranking.Similarly, as shown, message 1806 may indicate that a restaurant wasadded to ranked list 1800, because other consumers having an identityattribute in common with the consumer also dined at the restaurant. Forexample, although a variety of CRVs may contribute to a ranking, a CRVcomprising an age attribute and/or a favorite cuisine attribute may belisted where, for example, that CRV most significantly contributed tothe total CRV.

In various embodiments, and referring now to FIG. 19, a ranked list 1900may be backfilled or adjusted based upon a list of restaurantspreviously visited by a consumer 1902 and/or a list of popularrestaurants 1904. For example, one or more restaurants comprising rankedlist 1900 may be removed based upon an indication that the consumer forwhom ranked list 1900 is generated has already visited the restaurant(e.g., within a particular period of time, such as the last day, week,month, etc.) Similarly, in various embodiments, ranked list ofrestaurants 1900 may be supplemented by the addition of one or morerestaurants on a list of popular restaurants 1904. For example, rankedlist 1900 may be compared to list of popular restaurants 1904, and thoserestaurants appearing on list 1904 which do not appear on ranked list1900 may be added to the ranked list. The results of these operationsmay be compiled as part of a final list 1906.

With further regard to list of popular restaurants 1904, such a list maybe created based upon a normalized popularity score. In variousembodiments, a normalized popularity score may be obtained as discussedwith reference to FIGS. 20-23. With brief regard to these figures,although each figure refers to and is discussed in the context of amerchant (and/or a merchant id), in general, a normalized popularityscore may be obtained for any item, including a merchant such as arestaurant and/or an offer.

Accordingly, with reference now to FIG. 20, a process 2000 for obtaininga normalized popularity score is shown. To obtain a normalizedpopularity score, a plurality of transactions may be grouped by merchant(step 2002). A table 2100A grouping a plurality of transactions bymerchant is illustrated in FIG. 21. As indicated, a merchant having amerchant I.D. of, for example, 12312312311 may be associated with aplurality of transactions, each occurring during a particular timeperiod, such as a particular day of a particular month during aparticular year (e.g., Jan. 1, 2011). Each transaction may be associatedwith an amount, a customer id, a transaction time, and/or the like.Thus, in various embodiments, each transaction may represent a purchaseby a consumer from the merchant. Further, as shown in table 2100B, theplurality of transactions occurring during a time period with aparticular merchant may be counted or aggregated to obtain a periodic(e.g., daily, monthly, etc.) transaction count of a merchant (step2004).

Having obtained a periodic transaction count, as shown in FIG. 22, anaverage periodic transaction count may be obtained by dividing theperiodic transaction count by, for example and where the period duringwhich transactions are aggregated is greater than a single day, thenumber of days in the period (step 2006). This process is shown intables 2200A and 2200B. This process may be applied to other types ofitem data as well, as discussed elsewhere herein. For instance, a countmay be calculated in association with social data, time and/or dateinformation, consumer and/or merchant feedback, and the like.

Continuing, a maximum number of transactions during a period with agiven merchant may be determined (step 2008). For example, asillustrated in FIG. 23, a maximum number or count of daily transactionswith the exemplary merchant 12312312311 may be determined for aspecified time period (e.g., one month). This process is shown in tables2300A and 2300B.

Now, having obtained both an average periodic transaction countassociated with a merchant as well as a maximum transaction countassociated with the same merchant, a normalized merchant popularityscore may be obtained by taking the quotient of the two (step 2010). Forexample, with reference to FIGS. 22 and 23, the average dailytransaction count associated with merchant 12312312311 is 33, while themaximum number of daily transactions during the specified period of timeis 77. The normalized popularity score for the merchant 12312312311during the specified period is therefore 33/77, or approximately 43%. Anormalized popularity score may therefore represent a probability orlikelihood that a merchant such as a restaurant, irrespective of itssize relative to any other merchant, will on any given day reach itsmaximum capacity. Greater normalized popularity scores thereforerepresent greater popularity, in that merchants that are more likely toreach a maximum capacity are more popular with consumers.

Thus, in various embodiments, list of popular restaurants 1904 (and/or alist of popular merchants or items) may be generated by repeatingprocess 2000 for each item of interest. In response to a score beingdetermined for each item of interest, list of popular items 1904 may begenerated by ranking or ordering each restaurant in the list accordingto its popularity score (e.g., with higher popularity scores beingranked higher in the list).

Further, as discussed above, a normalized popularity score may be usedto construct list 1904 of popular restaurants, which may be used tobackfill or adjust list of merchants 1900 output by a collaborativefiltering or recommendation process. Moreover, in various embodiments, anormalized popularity score may, as discussed briefly above, normalize acapacity bias of a variety of merchants. More particularly, a normalizedpopularity score may adjust for an apparent bias in the popularity ofone merchant over another merchant which may otherwise arise as a resultof the greater capacity or size (e.g., a greater number of ROCs) of theone merchant over the other merchant.

In addition, in various embodiments, a normalized popularity score maynot simply act as a supplement to ranked list of merchants 1900. On thecontrary, a normalized popularity score may inform a ranked list ofitems, including a ranked list of restaurants and merchants. Forexample, ranked list 1900 may include a normalized popularity score, anda consumer may, as described herein, receive a normalized score inassociation with one or more recommended items.

In addition, in certain embodiments, a normalized popularity score maybe used to supplement or substitute restaurants in ranked list 1900. Forexample, a consumer may indicate that he is interested in items outsidehis normal mode of shopping (e.g., items that system 100 (e.g., arecommender system or a system suitably configured to makerecommendations) would not identify based upon the consumer'stransaction history, etc.) In these circumstances, a consumer mayreceive one or more items associated with a normalized popularity score(e.g., a top ten most popular items). Similarly, a normalized popularityscore may be used to recommend items to a consumer who has notransaction history and/or who is associated with data insufficient tomake a recommendation, as described elsewhere herein.

Furthermore, in certain embodiments, a restaurant and/or a list ofrestaurants may be ranked based upon a channel through which a consumerreceives an identifier (e.g., a name) associated with the one or morerestaurants. For example, a consumer who receives a ranked list ofrestaurants via a mobile communication device may receive restaurantidentifiers associated with restaurants that are within a certaindistance of the location of the mobile communications device, while aconsumer who receives a ranked list of restaurants from a stationarypersonal computer may receive offers based purely upon a CRV or totalCRV, as described above. Further, in various embodiments, a restaurantin a list of restaurants may be up-ranked and/or down-ranked dependingupon the relationship of the restaurant to an owner or proprietor ofsystem 100. For instance, a restaurant may be up-ranked where therestaurant is a partner of the owner of system 100.

Referring now to FIGS. 24A-24C, a ranked list of restaurants and/or aranked restaurant may be provided to a consumer in a variety of formatsand via a variety of channels and/or web clients 112. For example, withspecial attention to FIG. 24A, a restaurant (e.g., ACME Restaurant) maybe provided to a consumer via a mobile communication device with adescription of the restaurant, a CRV associated with the restaurant(which may be expressed as a number of stars and/or via another ratingor ranking scale), an address of the restaurant, and/or the like. Aconsumer may further obtain directions to a recommended restaurant, asdiscussed herein.

In addition, with reference to FIG. 24B, a consumer may describe or ratea restaurant the consumer has visited (e.g., as described in greaterdetail herein and as trendy, quick, etc.), request a restaurant fittingsuch a description, and/or review such a description associated with therestaurant. Further still, with reference to FIG. 24C, a consumer mayreceive a ranked list of restaurants (e.g., Acme Ristorante, AcmeBurger, Acme Restaurant, etc.) in accordance with a ranked list, asdescribed above. More particularly, in various embodiments, a consumermay receive a ranked list of restaurant identifiers (e.g., restaurantnames) in an ascending order of relevance, where the order is based upona CRV and/or total CRV associated with each restaurant.

Thus, as discussed above, system 100 may recommend a variety of items toa consumer based upon a variety of criteria. Moreover, although certainportions of the foregoing description rely upon specific items forpurposes of illustration, any item may be recommended based upon theprocesses discussed above. Further, although the embodiments discussedabove highlight a variety of exemplary items and item attributes, manyother items may be used as part of the recommendation processesdiscussed above. Some of these items are discussed herein.

In various embodiments, an item may, as discussed above, comprise apreference of a consumer for another item. Thus, a preference maycomprise a favorite or preferred cuisine of a consumer, a favorite orpreferred merchant of a consumer, and/or any other favorite or preferreditem of a consumer.

A preference may be determined, in various embodiments, based upon dataassociated with a consumer. More particularly, in various embodiments, apreference may be determined based upon an analysis of transaction dataassociated with a consumer. For instance, a preference may be inferredfrom transaction data associated with a consumer. That is, in variousembodiments, system 100 may infer, based upon one or more transactionsassociated with a consumer that a consumer has an interest in aparticular item, and, based upon this inference, system 100 maydetermine that the consumer has a preference for one or more items.Specifically, in various embodiments, system 100 may determine that aconsumer has an interest in one or more types of cuisine, one or moremerchants, and/or the like.

As discussed briefly above, the data upon which a preference is basedmay be variously determined. For instance, a preference may be based, invarious embodiments, upon transaction data, which may include, forexample, one or more industry codes (e.g., standard industry codes orSIC codes) associated with one or more transactions. Similarly, apreference may be based upon one or more groups of similar items (e.g.,merchants), a mapping of third party data associated with one or moreitems to internal data (as discussed herein), a consumer profile (asdiscussed above), and/or the like. Further, as discussed herein, datasuch as transaction data, social data, time and/or date information,consumer and/or merchant feedback, and/or the like, may serve as a basisfor determining a preference.

Thus, to illustrate, system 100 may determine that a consumer has apreference for a particular merchant based upon a transaction history ofthe consumer which shows that the consumer has one or more transactionswith the particular merchant, one or more transactions with merchants ina same or similar industry group as the merchant, and/or the like. Asimilar process may be performed for other items, such as cuisine. And,in this way, system 100 may associate a consumer with a preference,which may act as an input to a collaborative filtering process asdescribed above. That is, in various embodiments, a CRV may becalculated, as described above, based upon a preference of a consumer.Similarly, in various embodiments, a ranked list of items (e.g.,merchants) may be ordered and/or reordered based upon a preference. Forexample, ranked list of merchants 1900 may be reordered or re-rankedbased upon a consumer preference for a merchant. That is, a preferred orfavorite merchant may be up-ranked, while other merchants may bedown-ranked.

Continuing, in accordance with various embodiments, and with referencenow to FIG. 25, as discussed more briefly above, a consumer may receivea review of and/or review an item, such as a merchant or restaurant. Forexample, in operation, a consumer may be prompted to write a reviewbased on the consumer's transaction activity at a merchant. In variousembodiments, a consumer may be prompted shortly before and/or aftercompleting (or partially completing) a transaction at a merchant. Forexample, a consumer may receive a delayed prompt that occurs after atransaction is authorized and/or completed, such as on a daily, weekly,monthly or other basis. A prompt may be delivered to a consumer via aninterface 2500 displayed by a web client associated with the consumer. Aprompt may take the form of an email, text message, a mobile applicationnotification, and/or the like. Similarly, a consumer may make a requestto review an item.

In various embodiments, system 100 may verify that a consumer is anaccount holder and/or that the consumer has initiated and/or completedat least one financial transaction associated with an item. Thus, aconsumer review, which may be displayed variously as described herein,may include a notation that the consumer review is based on a verifiedtransaction, which may enhance a credibility associated with theconsumer review. A verified consumer review may further include a dateof a financial transaction, and in the instance that a consumer hasconducted multiple transactions with a merchant, the consumer may, invarious embodiments, verify and include multiple transaction dates.

In various embodiments, an interface 2500 may include a consumer ratingcomponent 2504, a word tagging component 2506, and/or a free-form textreview component 2508. A rating component 2504 may comprise, asillustrated in FIG. 26, any type of rating component, such as a starrating component, a numerical rating component, etc., and a consumer mayselect a rating to associate with an item. As those of skill mayappreciate, a rating may be assigned by a consumer based upon theconsumer's experience with the item and/or the consumer's opinion of theitem.

With attention to FIGS. 27-30, a word tagging component 2506 may allow aconsumer to quickly associate one or more words with an item. In variousembodiments, word tagging component 2506 may comprise one or more groupsand/or a dictionary of words and/or word tags. In various embodiments,and as shown in FIG. 27, one or more word tags may be presented to aconsumer. Word tags may include a variety of words suitable to describean item. Thus, where an item comprises a restaurant, exemplary word tagsmay include, as shown, “fun,” “casual,” “cozy,” “hipster,” “quiet,”“trendy,” “fresh,” “damp,” “roomy,” “quaint,” “famous,” “small,” and/orthe like.

Certain word tags may be grouped into one or more categories anddisplayed in association with an item. More particularly, in variousembodiments, one or more word tags may be displayed and/or grouped basedon a category of an item and/or one or more item characteristics. Forexample, a word tag and/or a merchant may be categorized based upon amerchant type, such as whether the merchant is a restaurant, a retailer,an entertainment merchant, a service merchant, an online merchant,and/or the like. Similarly, a word tag and/or a merchant may becategorized based upon information associated with the merchant,including, for instance, a price range associated with the merchant,various merchant offerings, what type of cuisine the merchant serves (ifthe merchant is a restaurant), and/or the like. Thus, to illustrate,where an item comprises a Mexican restaurant, word tags that arecommonly associated with one or more Mexican restaurants and/or theparticular restaurant (e.g., “spicy,” “hot,’ etc.) may be presented tothe consumer via interface 2500, grouped in association with therestaurant, and/or displayed to the consumer in association with therestaurant.

Further, in various embodiments, one or more word tags presented to aconsumer via interface 2500 may be adjusted and/or the order of certainword tags presented may be adjusted in response to a consumer's ratingof an item (e.g., a star-rating, as described above). For example, morepositive word tags may be presented via interface 2500 in response to apositive rating and/or a rating corresponding to a threshold (higher)level. Similarly, more negative word tags may be presented via interface2500 in response to a negative rating and/or a rating corresponding to athreshold (lower) level. In addition, word tags may be presented to aconsumer based upon one or more other parameters, such as, for example,one or more prior word tags associated with a restaurant, a price perperson of a restaurant (e.g., an “expensive” or “fancy” tag may bepresented in association with a high-end restaurant), and/or the like.

Further, in various embodiments, all of a group of word tags associatedwith an item may be presented to a consumer. Similarly, a truncated orlimited portion of a group of word tags may be presented to a consumer.Likewise, a consumer may provide his or her own word tag. However, wherea consumer provides a word tag, the word tag may be reviewed andapproved before being allowed. A group of word tags may, in addition, beprovided to a consumer, which includes both positive and negative wordtags. Moreover, in various embodiments, one or more word tags may beprioritized based on a consumer's history of word tag selections. Forexample, a consumer may be presented with word tags most commonlyselected by the consumer. A word tag may, in addition, be presented to aconsumer based upon one or more merchant parameters. For example, agroup of word tags may be associated with a category of restaurant(e.g., a 4-star category of restaurant), and a consumer who receives a4-star restaurant recommendation, as described above, may be presentedword tags from the 4-star restaurant group of word tags.

In various embodiments, a merchant may include a selected word tag in agroup of word tags. A merchant may thus include certain test word tags,which, if selected by consumers, may indicate that the word tag isassociated with or descriptive of the merchant. For instance, a merchantwhich wants to promote itself as a trendy restaurant may request thatthe word tag “trendy” be included within a word tag group (and/or at acertain rank or position within a word tag group), and this word tag maybe presented to consumers who are customers of the merchant and/orconsumers who receive the restaurant as part of a recommendation, asdescribed more fully above. Thus, to illustrate, if the word tag“trendy” is often selected by a merchant's customers, the merchant mayconclude that its customers view it as a trendy restaurant. Conversely,if the merchant's customers do not select the “trendy” word tag todescribe the merchant, the merchant may conclude that its customers donot view it as a trendy place to eat.

Thus, as discussed above, a consumer may be presented with a variety ofword tags, each of which may be associated with an item such as arestaurant. And, as also discussed above, a consumer may interact withinterface 2500 in response to receiving a list of ranked restaurants, inresponse to a request by the consumer for a list of word tags associatedwith a restaurant, in response to a consumer entering a restaurantlocation, in response to a transaction with the restaurant, and/or thelike.

Further, as particularly shown in FIGS. 28 and 30, a consumer may selectone or more word tags to associate with an item (e.g., as illustrated inFIG. 28, a consumer has selected the “causal” tag and the “trendy” tag),and, as discussed, a consumer may select one or more word tags basedupon the consumer's impression of an item, experience with the item,opinion of the item, and/or the like. Thus, where a consumer receives arestaurant identifier as part of a restaurant recommended by system 100,the consumer may simultaneously review one or more word tags which, asdiscussed above, are grouped with or associated with the restaurantand/or select one or more word tags which the consumer wishes toassociate with the restaurant.

Moreover, in various embodiments and with particular attention to FIGS.31-33, a free-form text review component 2508 may permit a consumer toprovide a description of a user's opinion of and/or experience with anitem. Although a consumer may decline to enter text, this option may, asdepicted, permit a user to add detailed comments, which may be madeavailable, as described herein, to other consumers. As those of skillwill appreciate, a consumer may submit or otherwise transmit a completedreview comprising one or more of the consumer's selected rating, wordtags, and/or written description of an item to system 100 for storageand analysis.

In various embodiments and with reference to FIG. 34, a consumer mayreceive information associated with an item. For example, as depicted, aconsumer may receive an overall merchant review, which may include anaverage rating associated with the merchant, a list of one or more mostcommonly selected or “top” word tags associated with the merchant,and/or one or more written descriptions of the merchant (as entered byone or more consumers). In various embodiments, one or more word tagsmay be displayed in association with a number of other consumers orcardmembers who have selected each word tag.

Further, as discussed, a consumer may receive an item or restaurantreview in association with an item recommendation by system 100 and/orranked list of items (e.g., restaurants) 1900 that is generated for theconsumer. Thus, for example, a consumer may select a restaurant fromlist of ranked restaurants 1900 provided to the user by a system 100,and in response, the consumer may be provided via interface 2500 arestaurant review as shown in FIG. 34. A consumer may further receive anitem review in response to a request by the consumer for the reviewand/or based upon a location of the consumer (e.g., the consumer mayreceive a review in response to entering the restaurant).

In various embodiments, a review completed by a consumer, as describedabove, may be more creditable than other typical consumer reviews. Thismay occur, for example and as discussed above, as a result of the factthat the reviews discussed herein may only be created by consumers whohave conducted actual, verifiable transactions in association with amerchant. Further, although in various embodiments, a transaction may beconducted with any type of transaction card, in various embodiments, atransaction may be paid for with cash, but a consumer may check-in at amerchant for verification, which may enable the consumer to create averifiable review. These simplified and rapid processes for creatingreviews of items may further encourage a consumer to provide a review,and this may, in turn, result in a large number of reviews, which may,in its turn, result in more accurate overall item reviews.

Continuing, in various embodiments, a quality of service or servicesentiment may be associated with an item, such as a restaurant and/ortreated as an item or item attribute. A quality of service may, invarious embodiments and as described with reference to process 3500 asshown in FIG. 35, be inferred or determined from transaction data. Forexample, in various embodiments, a quality of service may be determinedfrom one or more gratuity or “tip” amounts added by consumers to one ormore transactions. More particularly, a greater or larger gratuityamount may indicate consumer satisfaction (and therefore good quality ofservice) with a restaurant, while lesser or smaller gratuity amounts mayindicate consumer dissatisfaction or reduced consumer satisfaction (andtherefore reduced or poor quality of service).

In various embodiments, system 100 may determine a gratuity amountassociated with a transaction based upon a variety of data (step 3502).For example, in certain embodiments, a restaurant may provide a gratuityamount to system 100 as a separate line item. In addition, in variousembodiments, system 100 may determine a gratuity amount based upon acomparison of a first transaction request and authorization amount thatincludes a consumer's total bill to a second transaction andauthorization amount that includes the consumer's total bill plus anygratuity the consumer has added to the bill. The difference between thefirst transaction amount and the second transaction amount may beidentified as the gratuity amount.

In various embodiments, an average gratuity percentage (and/or amount)may be determined for one or more of a plurality of restaurants over aperiod of time (e.g., one month) (step 3504). For example, a gratuityamount may be divided by a total bill amount for a transaction to arriveat a gratuity percentage for the transaction. This calculation may berepeated for each of a plurality of transactions associated with therestaurant during the period (e.g., all purchases made from therestaurant during a month period) to arrive at a plurality of gratuitypercentages. Each of this plurality of gratuity percentages may besummed and divided by the total number of transactions during the periodto arrive at an average gratuity percentage for the restaurant. Thisaverage gratuity may represent an overall or average quality of serviceassociated with the restaurant.

Further, in various embodiments, an average gratuity associated with arestaurant may be scored or evaluated to place the average gratuity in acontext that a consumer may more easily incorporate into the consumer'sdecision making process (step 3506). For example, an average gratuitymay be used to score or rate a restaurant's quality of service (e.g., as“excellent,” “good,” “average,” “poor,” and/or the like). An averagegratuity may also, in various embodiments, be associated with a score,such as a number of stars, a thumbs up symbol or a thumbs down symbol,and/or the like.

Therefore, a score may be calculated based upon a variety of scoringmodels. However, to discuss a few, a score may be associated with arestaurant as follows. In various embodiments, a restaurant having anaverage gratuity of greater than a first value (e.g., 15%) may receive afirst score (e.g., a score of “excellent”), while a restaurant having anaverage gratuity of between the first value and a second value (e.g.,between 10% and 15%) may receive a second score (e.g., a score of“average”), and a restaurant having an average gratuity of less than thesecond value (e.g., less than 10%) may receive a third score (e.g., ascore of “poor”). In various embodiments, any number of scoring valuesmay be applied (e.g., in addition to the three values discussed above)to filter an average gratuity as finely or as granularly as desired.

Further, in various embodiments, a total average gratuity may becalculated for a group of merchants (e.g., based upon the averagegratuity calculated above for each individual restaurant), and theindividual average gratuities compared to the total average gratuity toformulate a score. For example, a restaurant having an average gratuitythat is greater than the total average gratuity may receive a quality ofservice score of “excellent,” while a restaurant having an averagegratuity that is less than the total average gratuity may receive ascore of “poor.” However, in various embodiments, a variety of scoringthemes may be applied, depending, again, upon a desired scoringgranularity. For example, any restaurant having an average gratuitywithin a first margin of a total average gratuity may receive a firstscore, while any restaurant within a second margin may receive a secondscore, and so on.

Similarly, in various embodiments, a plurality of average gratuities maybe expected to fit a normal or Gaussian distribution (e.g., a “bellcurve”). Where such a distribution applies, a restaurant may receive ascore based upon the location of the restaurant's average gratuity onthe distribution. For example, a restaurant having an average gratuitylocated a first standard deviation away from a mean average gratuity mayreceive a first score, while a restaurant having a second averagegratuity located a second standard deviation away from the mean mayreceive a second score, etc.

In operation, a quality of service score and/or an average gratuityassociated with a restaurant may be associated with a restaurant as arestaurant attribute and fed into a collaborative filtering process, asdescribed above, to develop CRVs for the restaurant, to up-rank and/ordown-rank the restaurant, and/or the like. For example, a restaurant maybe added to ranked list 1900 as described above and re-ranked based upona quality of service score (where desirable scores may engenderup-ranking and less desirable scores the opposite). Similarly, asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 34, a quality of service and/or anaverage gratuity may be presented to a consumer as part of an overallmerchant review.

Continuing, in various embodiments, a relative consumer cost associatedwith an item may be determined. For example, in various embodiments, arelative consumer cost associated with a merchant may be determined. Arelative consumer cost may indicate a cost associated with an item ormerchant. A cost may comprise, for example, an expected expenditure of aconsumer with a merchant, such as an expected charge amount. In variousembodiments, as described herein, a relative consumer cost may be basedupon a variety of items, including transaction data. Thus, a relativeconsumer cost may provide a more accurate representation of an expectedcost of an item to a consumer, because, for example, other estimates ofcost may be based upon factors (e.g., menu data, user feedback) whichmay not reflect actual consumer behavior and/or which may be subject toconsumer impressions of cost (as opposed to actual spending).

Moreover, in various embodiments, a relative consumer cost may beprovided in relative terms. For example, a relative consumer cost mayindicate a cost associated with a merchant relative to a cost associatedwith another merchant. Thus, in various embodiments, a relative consumercost may segment a plurality of merchants into one or more categories orsegments of cost or expected expenditure. Further, any number ofsegments may be used. Further still, segments may be associated with avariety of indicia. For example, segments may be associated with dollarsign symbols, such that a consumer may readily determine that a merchantassociated with a single dollar sign symbol is less expensive than amerchant associated greater than one dollar sign symbol. Other indiciamay include numbers (e.g., numbers from 1 to 10), stars (e.g., starsfrom 1 to 5), and, in general, any other symbol or index.

Accordingly, with reference now to FIG. 36, a process 3600 fordetermining a relative consumer cost is described. Process 3600 isdescribed herein with reference to a variety of tables, each of whichmay assist in the implementation of process 3600. However, althoughprocess 3600 is described with reference to each table, in variousembodiments, a variety of data structures, data sets, and/or the likemay accommodate process 3600. In other words, the tables discussedherein are included for illustrative purposes only.

Therefore, in various embodiments, and with reference to FIG. 37, all(or a subset of all) positive transactions or ROCs associated with oneor more merchants during a period (e.g., one month) may be determined(e.g., by a system 100) and stored, as shown, as part of a table 3700(step 3602). A positive transaction or ROC may comprise a transaction inwhich a consumer remits payment (as opposed to a transaction in which aconsumer receives a credit, such as a backcharge). In general, althoughtable 3700 may include a variety of columns, in various embodiments andfor purposes of illustration, table 3700 may further comprise a merchantID column 3702, a charge column 3704, a merchant name column 3706, amerchant zip code column 3708, a merchant address column 3710, and/orthe like. Thus, each row in a table such as table 3700 may correspond toa transaction record or a ROC associated with one or more positivetransactions of consumers at a merchant (e.g., as shown, consumers atthe merchant “Merchant A”). In addition, each ROC may be associated witha transaction or ROC amount at, for example, column 3704, as well as amerchant id, a merchant name, a merchant zip code, a merchant address(at columns 3702, 3706, 3708, and 3710, respectively).

Turning to FIG. 38, a mean ROC amount, a standard deviation (and/orvariance) ROC amount, and/or a number or count of ROCs associated withone or more merchants may be determined based upon table 3700 (step3604). For example, as shown in a table 3800, a mean ROC amount may becalculated for a plurality of merchants in column 3804. Likewise, anumber of ROCs may be determined for a plurality of merchants in column3804, while a standard deviation ROC amount may be calculated in column3806. As those of skill is the art will appreciate, in variousembodiments, a mean ROC amount and/or a standard deviation ROC amountmay be calculated according to known methods.

Further, in various embodiments, as illustrated in FIG. 39, table 3900,any merchant with fewer than a threshold number of ROCs may be deletedor eliminated from table 3800 (to produce table 3900) (step 3606). Invarious embodiments, a merchant may be eliminated if a merchant isassociated with less than twenty ROCs during a time period (e.g., 30days, one month, etc.)

With brief attention now to FIGS. 39 and 40, table 3900 may be modifiedsuch that a merchant may be limited to a single location (step 3608).That is, in various embodiments, a merchant may comprise one or morelocations (e.g., the merchant may have greater than a single storelocation). Accordingly, as depicted, a merchant having multiplelocations may be limited to the location associated with the greater orgreatest number of ROCs. Thus, as shown at table 4000 the merchantassociated with merchant id 6319018933 may be eliminated based upon its(lower) number of ROCs. In various embodiments, multiple merchantlocations may be distinguished or identified based upon a merchant namecolumn 4002, a merchant zip code column 4004 and/or a merchant addresscolumn 4006. For example, a determination may be made that a pluralityof entries or records in table 4000 correspond to a plurality ofmerchant locations (each having its own merchant id as shown at column4008) based upon one or more of a same merchant name column 4002,merchant zip code column 4004, and/or merchant address column 4006.

Continuing, with reference now to FIG. 41, a plurality of transaction orROC cutoff points may be determined based upon the information containedin table 4100 (step 3610). A cutoff point may represent a maximum and/orminimum ROC amount, over or under which a transaction record or ROCentry (as depicted generally in table 3700) may be eliminated frominclusion, as described herein, in a recalculated or newly determinedmean ROC amount, standard deviation ROC amount, and/or number of ROCs.In general, and in various embodiments, a ROC cutoff point (maximum orminimum) may represent a value that is two standard deviations orgreater from the mean value. Thus, as discussed herein, a maximum ROCcutoff point may comprise a ROC amount that is two standard deviationsor more greater than the mean ROC amount, while a minimum ROC cutoffpoint may comprise a ROC amount that is greater than or equal to twostandard deviations less than the mean ROC amount. Therefore, a maximumROC cutoff point and/or a minimum ROC cutoff point may be seen toeliminate outliers, or ROC amounts which are statistically much higheror much lower than the mean ROC amount.

In various embodiments, a maximum ROC cutoff point may be determinedbased upon the equation: maximum ROC cutoff point=mean ROCamount+2*standard deviation ROC amount. Similarly, in variousembodiments, a minimum ROC cutoff point may be determined based upon thefollowing equation: minimum ROC cutoff point=max (mean ROCamount−2*standard deviation ROC amount, 0). In other words, a minimumROC cutoff point may be the greater of a mean ROC amount−2*standarddeviation ROC amount and 0. Accordingly, with reference to table 4100, amaximum and minimum ROC cutoff point for the restaurant Merchant A maybe calculated as follows:

Maximum ROC cutoff point(Merchant A)=152.32+2*177.57=$507.46.

Minimum ROC cutoff point(Merchant A)=max(152.32−2*177.57,0)=max(−202.82,0)=0.

Having determined maximum and minimum ROC cutoff points, and withreference now to FIG. 42, in various embodiments, ROC entries appearingin table 3700 may be eliminated from table 3700 if the charge amountappearing in charge column 4702 is greater than the maximum ROC cutoffpoint or less than the minimum ROC cutoff point. As discussed above,this process may eliminate outliers. Thus, as depicted, the ROC entryassociated with the restaurant Merchant A having a charge amount of763.6 may be eliminated from table 4200, because the charge amountexceeds the maximum ROC cutoff point (and is therefore an outlier).

Now, having eliminated outlier data entries, as described above, a meanROC amount, a standard deviation ROC amount, and/or a number of ROCs maybe recalculated based upon the data remaining in table 4200 (step 3614).Recalculating these values in the absence of outlying data entries mayserve to improve or normalize the accuracy associated with each value.With brief reference to FIG. 43, a table 4300 comprising a plurality ofrecalculated values is shown.

Further, in various embodiments, and with reference to FIG. 44, a sizeof wallet associated with a consumer may be determined for each ROC(step 3616) and appended to all or part of any of the tables describedherein. Further, in various embodiments, e.g., where a consumer hastransacted with a particular merchant on more than one occasion during aperiod of time (e.g., multiple ROCs exist for the consumer-merchantpair), duplicate pairs may be removed, such that only a singleconsumer-merchant pair remains. A table resembling table 4400 mayresult. Further, in various embodiments, any table entries includingzero size of wallet values or missing size of wallet values may beremoved as part of this process. Further still, as shown in table 4402,an average consumer size of wallet may be determined in association withor more merchants (step 3618). This may be accomplished, for example, byaveraging individual consumer size of wallet values for each ROCassociated with a merchant. Thus, a merchant may be associated with anaverage consumer size of wallet value.

Now, with reference to FIG. 45, a table 4500 may be produced, compiled,calculated, determined, or the like. As shown, table 4500 may includeeach of the values calculated as described above. For example, table4500 may contain a recalculated mean ROC amount, as shown in column4502, a recalculated standard deviation ROC amount, as shown in column4506, an average consumer size of wallet, as shown in column 4508, and atotal spend associated with each merchant, as shown in column 4504. Invarious embodiments, a total spend associated with a merchant maycomprise a sum of each consumer's spend (e.g., amount charged orotherwise expended) with a merchant during a time period.

Moreover, each of the values comprising columns 4502-4508 may be inputto a regression model, such as a linear regression model, and the modelmay calculate or output a normalized relative consumer cost associatedwith each merchant (step 3620). Similarly, in various embodiments, arecalculated mean ROC amount and/or a recalculated standard deviationROC amount may not be input to a linear regression model to determine anormalized relative consumer cost. Rather, in various embodiments, eachof a mean ROC amount and/or a standard deviation ROC amount (as shown intable 3800, columns 3802 and 3806) may be input to a regression model todetermine a relative consumer cost. Thus, in various embodiments, a(normalized or un-normalized) relative consumer cost associated with amerchant may be based upon a mean ROC amount, a standard deviation ROCamount, an average consumer size of wallet, and/or a total spendassociated with one or more merchants.

Therefore, as discussed above, a relative consumer cost may serve as abasis for segmenting a plurality of merchants into one or morecategories or segments of cost or expected expenditure. In addition, aseach segment may be associated with a variety of indicia, (e.g., adollar sign symbol), a consumer may readily determine a cost of amerchant relative to one or more other merchants.

In addition, as discussed elsewhere herein, a relative consumer cost maybe input to system 100 as an item and/or item attribute (e.g., as anattribute associated with a merchant). In other words, in variousembodiments, a relative consumer cost may comprise an input to acollaborative filtering algorithm as part of a process (as describedherein) for tailoring one or more recommendations to a consumer.Similarly, in various embodiments, a relative consumer cost and/or oneor more indicia associated with the relative consumer cost may bedisplayed in association with an overall merchant review, as depictedgenerally in FIG. 34. Thus, in various embodiments, a consumer mayreceive and/or review a merchant (or item) recommendation, as discussedabove, together with a relative consumer cost and/or one or more indiciaassociated with the cost, and this may help a consumer in decidingwhether to purchase from a merchant, etc.

In various embodiments, an estimated price per person associated with amerchant such as a restaurant, which may be quite similar to a relativeconsumer cost, may be determined. Accordingly, with reference to FIG.46, a process 4600 for determining an estimated price per person isdiscussed. Although process 4600 is described herein with reference to avariety of tables, as discussed above with reference to process 3600, invarious embodiments, a variety of data structures, data sets, and/or thelike may accommodate process 4600. In other words, the tables discussedherein are included for illustrative purposes only. Similarly, althoughprocess 4600 is discussed herein with reference to a restaurant orrestaurants, process 4600 may, with possibly certain alterations, beapplied to any other items.

Therefore, in various embodiments and with reference to FIG. 47, all (ora subset of all) transactions or ROCs associated with one or morerestaurants during a period (e.g., one month) may be determined (e.g.,by a system 100) and stored, as shown, as part of a table 4700 (step4602). In various embodiments, each ROC may comprise a positivetransaction or ROC (as discussed herein). Further, as depicted, a table4700 may comprise a variety of information, including for example, oneor more consumer identifiers, as shown in column 4702, one or morerestaurant identifiers, as shown in column 4704, one or more ROCamounts, as shown in column 4706, one or more ROC counts, as shown incolumn 4708, one or more transaction or ROC dates, as shown in column4710, one or more transaction or ROC times, as shown in column 4712. Invarious embodiments, a table 4700 may be organized and/or reorganized tocategorize ROCs by restaurant, so that a plurality of ROCs associatedwith a restaurant are grouped together. Each ROC may be furthercategorized or organized based upon a transaction date and/ortransaction time. ROC table 4800 organized according to these guidelinesis shown in FIG. 48.

With reference to FIG. 49, a plurality of ROCs associated with arestaurant may be categorized, in various embodiments, based upon a mealtype (step 4604). A meal type may comprise any category with which ameal may be associated. However, to give a few examples, a meal type maycomprise “breakfast,” “lunch,” “dinner,” “late night,” “weekend brunch,”and/or the like.

In various embodiments, a ROC may be categorized by meal type as part ofprocess 4600 for determining a relative consumer cost, because differentmeal types may be associated with different costs (e.g., breakfast mayoften be less costly than dinner, etc.) Thus, it may be beneficial tocategorize ROCs by meal type, so that the estimated price per personassociated with a restaurant that serves an inexpensive breakfast but amore expensive dinner is not unnecessarily skewed in any direction.Similarly, as discussed herein, an estimated price per person (and/or anindicia associated with the estimate) may be provided to a consumerbased upon a meal type in which the consumer is likely interested (e.g.,depending upon a time of day, etc.)

Accordingly, as shown in table 4900, a meal type (column 4904) may beassociated with a transaction or ROC time (column 4906) and/or aprobable dining time (column 4908). A ROC time may correspond to a timeor a period of time during which a ROC or transaction is authorized,while a probable dining time may correspond to a time during which aconsumer is actually dining within a restaurant (in various embodiments,a ROC time may succeed a probable dining time by a short period, such asan hour, because a consumer may dine for approximately the period priorto making payment). Thus, a table 4900 may comprise a cross-referencetable in which a meal type is defined by its relationship to a ROC timeand/or a probable dining time.

Therefore, with returning attention to table 4700, each ROC associatedwith table 4700 may be associated with a meal type based upon atransaction time (column 4712) associated with the ROC. This may beaccomplished, for example, with reference to the table 4900, and asillustrated, the table 4902, tying each ROC to a meal type, may result.

In various embodiments, the information comprising table 4900 may beaggregated at a restaurant and/or meal type level (step 4606) todetermine one or more aggregated ROCs. For example, as shown in FIG. 50,a table 5000 may, for each restaurant, comprise a total number of ROCs(column 5002) and/or a total ROC amount (column 5004) associated with arestaurant and a meal type. Thus, for example, a restaurant 12312312311may be associated with 446 ROCs and a total ROC amount of $3,544 duringa meal type of breakfast, 435 ROCs and a total ROC amount of $4,670during a meal type of lunch, and so on. Further, as shown, an aggregatedROC (e.g., aggregated ROC 5006) may be eliminated from a data set, suchas table 5000, based upon a total number of ROCs that is less than athreshold value, such as one hundred ROCs, three hundred ROCs, twohundred ROCS, four hundred ROCs, and/or the like. Likewise, in variousembodiments, an aggregated ROC may be eliminated from table 5000 basedupon a meal type. For instance, an aggregated ROC associated with a latenight meal type may be eliminated, because ROCs occurring during thetime period associated with this meal type may tend to skew a relativeconsumer cost in an unwanted direction and/or because there are commonlytoo few ROCs associated with the meal type.

Having determined an aggregated ROC, and with reference now to table5100 in FIG. 51, a percentage or number of ROCs corresponding to a rangeof ROC amounts (e.g., $0-$5, $5-$10, $10-$15, $15-$20, $20-$25, etc.)may be determined. In addition, as discussed above, each percentage ofROCs may be further categorized according to a meal type. Thus, asshown, table 5100 may indicate that 0.5% of ROCs associated with a mealtype of breakfast were associated with a ROC amount in the range $0-$5.Likewise, looking further into table 5100, the table may indicate that3.8% of ROCs associated with the meal type of breakfast were associatedwith a ROC amount in the range $15-$20. Further, as shown, adistribution of ROCs (e.g., by ROC amount and meal type) may betabulated for other meal types (e.g., lunch, dinner, etc.)

With continuing regard to table 5100, a first peak of maximum percentageof ROCs may be identified for each meal type (step 4608). In variousembodiments, a first maximum percentage of ROCs may be identified fromleft to right in table 5100. In other words, a first maximum ROCpercentage may be identified by reviewing ROC percentages from thosepercentages associated with an inexpensive range of ROC amounts (e.g.,$0-$5) to those associated with a more expensive range of ROC amounts(e.g., $40-$45). Further, in various embodiments, a first maximum ROCpercentage may comprise a first percentage which exceeds a thresholdvalue, such as 3%, 3.5%, and/or the like. Thus, as shown in table 5100,a first maximum percentage of ROCs (3.8%) associated with the meal type“breakfast” may occur in the range $15-$20, while a first maximum (4.5%)associated with the meal type “lunch” may occur in the range $20-$25,and a first maximum (9.6%) associated with the meal type dinner mayoccur in the range $30-$35.

Referring now to FIG. 52, having identified one or more first peaks ormaxima, an estimated price per person of a restaurant may be determined(step 4610). For example, in various embodiments, an estimate may bedetermined for a restaurant based upon the meal type associated with thegreatest number of total ROCs. As shown, a total number of ROCs arelisted in column 5202, and as can be seen, in this example, a meal typeof “dinner” may be associated with a greatest number of ROCs (e.g., 524ROCs). Accordingly, an estimated price per person for the restaurantassociated with these values may comprise a ROC amount (or the range ofROC amounts) corresponding to the first maximum ROC percentage in themeal type associated with the greatest number of total ROCs. Thus, asdepicted, an estimated price per person for the example restaurant maycomprise $35-$40 per person, since the meal type “dinner” is associatedwith the greatest number of total ROCs, and the first maximum associatedwith this meal type (9.6%) occurs in the range $35-$40. Further, invarious embodiments, chart 5202 may be compiled based upon table 5200.Chart 5202 may depict a price distribution associated with a meal type.Further, table 5200 may include an estimated price per person, asdiscussed above.

In various embodiments, an estimated price per person may, like arelative consumer cost, be input to system 100 as an item and/or itemattribute (e.g., as an attribute associated with a merchant). In otherwords, in various embodiments, an estimated price per person of arestaurant may comprise an input to a collaborative filtering algorithmas part of a process (as described herein) for tailoring one or morerecommendations to a consumer. Similarly, in various embodiments, anestimated price per person and/or one or more indicia associated withthe estimated price per person (if any) may be displayed in associationwith an overall merchant review, as depicted generally in FIG. 34. Thus,in various embodiments, a consumer may receive and/or review a merchant(or item) recommendation, as discussed above, together with an estimatedprice per person and/or one or more indicia associated with theestimate, and this may help a consumer in deciding whether to purchasefrom a merchant, etc.

In various embodiments, a merchant may be evaluated to determine astatus of the merchant. As discussed elsewhere herein, a merchant statusmay be input to a collaborative filtering algorithm and/or applied tothe output of such an algorithm to adjust one or more recommendationssupplied by the algorithm. Accordingly, with attention now to FIG. 53,process 5300 is depicted for determining a merchant status. A merchantstatus may, in various embodiments, comprise an active status and/or aninactive status. An active status may indicate that a merchant is openfor business (or likely open for business), while an inactive status mayindicate that the merchant has closed (permanently or semi permanently)for business. Likewise, in various embodiments, an active status mayindicate that a merchant accepts a particular form of payment, while aninactive status may indicate that the merchant does not accept and/or nolonger accepts a particular form of payment.

A merchant status may be based upon transaction or ROC data. Forinstance, a merchant status may be based upon one or more ROCsassociated with a merchant (e.g., purchases by customers from themerchant). Further, a merchant status may be based upon ROC data duringa period of time, e.g., one month, several months, one year, and/or thelike. For example, in various embodiments, a merchant status may bebased upon a comparison of a number of days since a last ROC associatedwith a merchant (“X”) to a maximum number of consecutive days (e.g., ina period of time) during which a merchant was not associated with a ROC(“Y”) (e.g., the merchant made no sales to customers of a transactionaccount provider). Specifically, a merchant status may be based uponcomparison of a number of days between a ROC associated with a merchantand a current date (“X”) to a number of consecutive days during whichthe merchant was not associated with a ROC (“Y”).

More particularly, in various embodiments, a merchant may be flagged asinactive or associated with a merchant status of inactive if X isgreater than Y plus a buffer value (step S302). In various embodiments,a buffer value may comprise three days. Thus, a merchant may be flaggedas inactive if X>Y+3. Other exemplary buffer values may include zero,one, two, four, five, six, seven, etc. Such a relationship may work, anda buffer value may be selected, to ensure that a merchant with ahistorically inconsistent transaction volume is not prematurely markedas being inactive. For example, a merchant who has five ROCs during athirty day month may not be marked as inactive, despite having a verylow transaction volume, if an adequate buffer value is selected.

Similarly, in various embodiments, an inactive merchant may be flaggedas active, or associated with a merchant status of active, based upon avalue of “X” (the number of days since a last ROC associated with amerchant) that is less than a buffer value (step 5304). In variousembodiments, exemplary buffer values may include zero, one, two, three,four, five, six, seven, etc. Thus, to illustrate, a merchant may beflagged as active if X<3.

Thus, in various embodiments, transaction data associated with amerchant may be evaluated to determine a merchant status. A merchantmay, in addition, oscillate or transition between active and inactive,depending, for example, upon the transaction data associated with amerchant. Likewise, in various embodiments and as discussed above, abuffer value may be selected to avoid premature merchant status changes.

Further, as discussed throughout this specification, a merchant statusmay be input to system 100 as an item and/or item attribute (e.g., as anattribute associated with a merchant). In other words, in variousembodiments, a merchant status may comprise an input to a collaborativefiltering algorithm as part of a process (as described herein) fortailoring one or more recommendations to a consumer. Similarly, invarious embodiments, merchant status may be applied to merchantrecommendation and/or a ranked list of merchants (e.g., list 1900) toeliminate an inactive merchant and/or to add a recently active merchantto a recommendation.

In various embodiments, as discussed briefly above, a consumer may“check in” or “log in” at a location, such as a merchant location. Forexample, a consumer may check in via web client 112, which may include aglobal positioning system or the like. Similarly, in variousembodiments, a transaction by a consumer may automatically check aconsumer into a merchant location associated with the transaction.Further, in various embodiments, one or more consumers may check intoone or more locations, and the consumers may share these locations withone or more other consumers. For example, where a group of consumers aremembers of a social network and/or associated with one another via asocial network, each consumer may be allowed to access one or morelocations associated with members of the social network. That is, aconsumer may review merchant locations where members of their socialnetwork have checked in. A consumer may review merchant locationsassociated with other members of their social network via, for example,one or more of web client 112, a social media website, a merchantwebsite, a financial institution website, a mobile device application,and/or the like.

With more particular regard now to transaction based check in (i.e.,check in based upon a location of a consumer and/or a consumer's webclient), in various embodiments, system 100 may analyze transaction datato verify that a consumer has conducted a transaction at a specificmerchant location. For instance, a transaction may verify a consumer'spresence at a merchant location, and so may also serve to check or logthe consumer in at the merchant location. In various embodiments, a zerovalue transaction may suffice to check a consumer in at a merchantlocation. A zero value transaction may comprise a transaction associatedwith zero monetary value, or in other words, a transaction in which aconsumer is not charged. Likewise, in various embodiments, a consumermay be credited past check-ins based on the transaction history of theconsumer. Thus, transaction based check in may encompass bothtransactions associated with a value or charge as well as transactionsassociated with no value or charge.

With continuing attention to transaction based check in, a consumer maybe checked in based upon both of a card present and a card not presenttransaction. As used herein, a consumer may present a transactioninstrument to a merchant as part of a card present transaction.Conversely, as used herein, a consumer may not present a transactioninstrument to a merchant as part of a card not present transaction.Rather, a consumer may present a transaction account number tofacilitate a card not present transaction. Card not present transactionsare common types of online transactions. Further, in variousembodiments, a consumer may be checked in based upon internal and/orexternal (e.g., third party) data.

A transaction based check in may occur in real time (e.g., atsubstantially the same time as a transaction), or it may occur at alater time. In various embodiments, a transaction based check in may befurther confirmed by verifying a location of web client 112 associatedwith a consumer (e.g., via a global positioning system associated withweb client 112). This may be referred to as location based check in.Thus, in certain embodiments, a transaction based check in may beutilized, while other embodiments may utilize a location based check in.Likewise, as discussed, in various embodiments, both of a transactionbased check in and a location based check in may be employed.

A consumer may receive notification of a successful (or unsuccessful)check-in. This may occur, in various embodiments, in response to atransaction authorization. Similarly, a merchant may receive informationrelated to consumers who have checked in with the merchant. In variousembodiments, a merchant may receive aggregated check in information(e.g., a number of check-ins) but may not receive individual check innotifications. However, a merchant may also receive individual check-indata.

In various embodiments, and with reference to FIGS. 54-59, a consumermay be offered a reward as an incentive to visit (and/or check in with)a merchant. Likewise, in various embodiments, a consumer may keep trackof one or more merchants visited or checked in with by the consumer. Areward may be monetary, status-based, reputation-based, etc. A rewardmay incentivize a consumer and/or other consumers to visit a merchant.For example, a reward may incentivize a consumer who receives a rewardto return to the merchant. A reward may also incentivize members of aconsumer's social network (who may have access to the consumer's checkin data, as discussed above) to visit a merchant as well. In variousembodiments, a consumer may be rewarded for checking in with a merchanta certain number of times, and/or a consumer may be rewarded forchecking in with one or more merchants.

More particularly, in various embodiments, a consumer may be offered areward in return for checking in with a list of merchants. For instance,as shown in FIG. 54 and FIG. 55, a consumer may be provided a list ofmerchants and offered a reward (e.g., 70% off the consumer's next mealat Acme Café) on the condition that the consumer checks in with eachmerchant identified by the list before a date. Further, as shown in FIG.56 and FIG. 57, a consumer may review one or more lists, merchantschecked in with, and/or the like, (e.g., by way of web client 112).Similarly, as shown in FIG. 58 and FIG. 59, a consumer may reviewplurality of lists completed, partially completed, and/or awaitingcompletion by the consumer. With further attention to FIG. 59, aconsumer may select one or more lists according to the interests of theconsumer. Thus, a consumer may be presented with a variety of lists forconsideration.

In various embodiments, a group of merchants comprising a list may beoutput by system 100 as a result of a collaborative filtering algorithm(and/or one or more other processes), as described herein. Thus, invarious embodiments, one or more merchants comprising a list may betailored to a consumer as discussed herein.

In various embodiments, a reward may vary in response to a consumer'sactions. For example, a consumer may complete a greater number of listsin order to receive a greater number of rewards and/or rewards ofgreater value. Similarly, a consumer may complete a difficult list(e.g., a list that is longer than another list) to obtain a moredesirable reward. Further, a reward may vary based on a size of wallet(as discussed herein) of a consumer. For instance, a consumer associatedwith a particular size of wallet may have credit sufficient to check inwith a list of luxury merchants. In return, such a consumer may receivea high value or luxury reward.

Systems, methods and computer program products are provided. In thedetailed description herein, references to “various embodiments”, “oneembodiment”, “an embodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicatethat the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarilyinclude the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover,such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment.Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic isdescribed in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it iswithin the knowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature,structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodimentswhether or not explicitly described.

In various embodiments, the methods described herein are implementedusing the various particular machines described herein. The methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using the herein particularmachines, and those hereinafter developed, in any suitable combination,as would be appreciated immediately by one skilled in the art. Further,as is unambiguous from this disclosure, the methods described herein mayresult in various transformations of certain articles.

For the sake of brevity, conventional data networking, applicationdevelopment and other functional aspects of the systems (and componentsof the individual operating components of the systems) may not bedescribed in detail herein. Furthermore, the connecting lines shown inthe various figures contained herein are intended to represent exemplaryfunctional relationships and/or physical couplings between the variouselements. It should be noted that many alternative or additionalfunctional relationships or physical connections may be present in apractical system.

The various system components discussed herein may include one or moreof the following: a host server or other computing systems including aprocessor for processing digital data; a memory coupled to the processorfor storing digital data; an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data; an application program stored in the memoryand accessible by the processor for directing processing of digital databy the processor; a display device coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by theprocessor; and a plurality of databases. Various databases used hereinmay include: client data; merchant data; financial institution data;and/or like data useful in the operation of the system. As those skilledin the art will appreciate, user computer may include an operatingsystem (e.g., Windows NT, Windows 95/98/2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista,Windows 7, OS2, UNIX, Linux, Solaris, MacOS, etc.) as well as variousconventional support software and drivers typically associated withcomputers. A user may include any individual, business, entity,government organization, software and/or hardware that interact with asystem.

In various embodiments, various components, modules, and/or engines ofsystem 100 may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps.Micro-apps are typically deployed in the context of a mobile operatingsystem, including for example, a Palm mobile operating system, a Windowsmobile operating system, an Android Operating System, Apple iOS, aBlackberry operating system and/or the like. The micro-app may beconfigured to leverage the resources of the larger operating system andassociated hardware via a set of predetermined rules which govern theoperations of various operating systems and hardware resources. Forexample, where a micro-app desires to communicate with a device ornetwork other than the mobile device or mobile operating system, themicro-app may leverage the communication protocol of the operatingsystem and associated device hardware under the predetermined rules ofthe mobile operating system. Moreover, where the micro-app desires aninput from a user, the micro-app may be configured to request a responsefrom the operating system which monitors various hardware components andthen communicates a detected input from the hardware to the micro-app.

The system contemplates uses in association with web services, utilitycomputing, pervasive and individualized computing, security and identitysolutions, autonomic computing, cloud computing, commodity computing,mobility and wireless solutions, open source, biometrics, grid computingand/or mesh computing.

Any databases discussed herein may include relational, hierarchical,graphical, or object-oriented structure and/or any other databaseconfigurations. Common database products that may be used to implementthe databases include DB2 by IBM (Armonk, N.Y.), various databaseproducts available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood Shores, Calif.),Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server by Microsoft Corporation(Redmond, Wash.), MySQL by MySQL AB (Uppsala, Sweden), or any othersuitable database product. Moreover, the databases may be organized inany suitable manner, for example, as data tables or lookup tables. Eachrecord may be a single file, a series of files, a linked series of datafields or any other data structure. Association of certain data may beaccomplished through any desired data association technique such asthose known or practiced in the art. For example, the association may beaccomplished either manually or automatically. Automatic associationtechniques may include, for example, a database search, a databasemerge, GREP, AGREP, SQL, using a key field in the tables to speedsearches, sequential searches through all the tables and files, sortingrecords in the file according to a known order to simplify lookup,and/or the like. The association step may be accomplished by a databasemerge function, for example, using a “key field” in pre-selecteddatabases or data sectors. Various database tuning steps arecontemplated to optimize database performance. For example, frequentlyused files such as indexes may be placed on separate file systems toreduce In/Out (“I/O”) bottlenecks.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. The data corresponding to the keyfield in each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of thesame type. However, data tables having similar, though not identical,data in the key fields may also be linked by using AGREP, for example.In accordance with one embodiment, any suitable data storage techniquemay be utilized to store data without a standard format. Data sets maybe stored using any suitable technique, including, for example, storingindividual files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing adomain whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposes one or moreelementary files containing one or more data sets; using data setsstored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system; data setsstored as records in a single file (including compression, SQLaccessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by firsttuple, etc.); Binary Large Object (BLOB); stored as ungrouped dataelements encoded using ISO/IEC 7816-6 data elements; stored as ungroupeddata elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) asin ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other proprietary techniques that mayinclude fractal compression methods, image compression methods, etc.

In various embodiments, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a BLOB. Thus, any binary information can be stored in astorage space associated with a data set. As discussed above, the binaryinformation may be stored on the financial transaction instrument orexternal to but affiliated with the financial transaction instrument.The BLOB method may store data sets as ungrouped data elements formattedas a block of binary via a fixed memory offset using either fixedstorage allocation, circular queue techniques, or best practices withrespect to memory management (e.g., paged memory, least recently used,etc.). By using BLOB methods, the ability to store various data setsthat have different formats facilitates the storage of data associatedwith the financial transaction instrument by multiple and unrelatedowners of the data sets. For example, a first data set which may bestored may be provided by a first party, a second data set which may bestored may be provided by an unrelated second party, and yet a thirddata set which may be stored, may be provided by an third partyunrelated to the first and second party. Each of these three exemplarydata sets may contain different information that is stored usingdifferent data storage formats and/or techniques. Further, each data setmay contain subsets of data that also may be distinct from othersubsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments, the data can be stored withoutregard to a common format. However, in various embodiments, the data set(e.g., BLOB) may be annotated in a standard manner when provided formanipulating the data onto the financial transaction instrument. Theannotation may comprise a short header, trailer, or other appropriateindicator related to each data set that is configured to conveyinformation useful in managing the various data sets. For example, theannotation may be called a “condition header”, “header”, “trailer”, or“status”, herein, and may comprise an indication of the status of thedata set or may include an identifier correlated to a specific issuer orowner of the data. In one example, the first three bytes of each dataset BLOB may be configured or configurable to indicate the status ofthat particular data set; e.g., LOADED, INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED,REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes of data may be used to indicatefor example, the identity of the issuer, user, transaction/membershipaccount identifier or the like. Each of these condition annotations arefurther discussed herein.

The data set annotation may also be used for other types of statusinformation as well as various other purposes. For example, the data setannotation may include security information establishing access levels.The access levels may, for example, be configured to permit only certainindividuals, levels of employees, companies, or other entities to accessdata sets, or to permit access to specific data sets based on thetransaction, merchant, issuer, user or the like. Furthermore, thesecurity information may restrict/permit only certain actions such asaccessing, modifying, and/or deleting data sets. In one example, thedata set annotation indicates that only the data set owner or the userare permitted to delete a data set, various identified users may bepermitted to access the data set for reading, and others are altogetherexcluded from accessing the data set. However, other access restrictionparameters may also be used allowing various entities to access a dataset with various permission levels as appropriate.

The data, including the header or trailer may be received by a standalone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify, or augmentthe data in accordance with the header or trailer. As such, in oneembodiment, the header or trailer is not stored on the transactiondevice along with the associated issuer-owned data but instead theappropriate action may be taken by providing to the transactioninstrument user at the stand alone device, the appropriate option forthe action to be taken. The system may contemplate a data storagearrangement wherein the header or trailer, or header or trailer history,of the data is stored on the transaction instrument in relation to theappropriate data.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of thesystem may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

Encryption may be performed by way of any of the techniques nowavailable in the art or which may become available—e.g., Twofish, RSA,El Gamal, Schorr signature, DSA, PGP, PKI, and symmetric and asymmetriccryptosystems.

The computing unit of the web client may be further equipped with anInternet browser connected to the Internet or an intranet using standarddial-up, cable, DSL or any other Internet protocol known in the art.Transactions originating at a web client may pass through a firewall inorder to prevent unauthorized access from users of other networks.Further, additional firewalls may be deployed between the varyingcomponents of CMS to further enhance security.

Firewall may include any hardware and/or software suitably configured toprotect CMS components and/or enterprise computing resources from usersof other networks. Further, a firewall may be configured to limit orrestrict access to various systems and components behind the firewallfor web clients connecting through a web server. Firewall may reside invarying configurations including Stateful Inspection, Proxy based,access control lists, and Packet Filtering among others. Firewall may beintegrated within an web server or any other CMS components or mayfurther reside as a separate entity. A firewall may implement networkaddress translation (“NAT”) and/or network address port translation(“NAPT”). A firewall may accommodate various tunneling protocols tofacilitate secure communications, such as those used in virtual privatenetworking. A firewall may implement a demilitarized zone (“DMZ”) tofacilitate communications with a public network such as the Internet. Afirewall may be integrated as software within an Internet server, anyother application server components or may reside within anothercomputing device or may take the form of a standalone hardwarecomponent.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website or otherInternet-based graphical user interface which is accessible by users. Inone embodiment, the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS),Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and Microsoft SQL Server, are usedin conjunction with the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT webserver software, a Microsoft SQL Server database system, and a MicrosoftCommerce Server. Additionally, components such as Access or MicrosoftSQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix MySQL, Interbase, etc., may be usedto provide an Active Data Object (ADO) compliant database managementsystem. In one embodiment, the Apache web server is used in conjunctionwith a Linux operating system, a MySQL database, and the Perl, PHP,and/or Python programming languages.

Any of the communications, inputs, storage, databases or displaysdiscussed herein may be facilitated through a website having web pages.The term “web page” as it is used herein is not meant to limit the typeof documents and applications that might be used to interact with theuser. For example, a typical website might include, in addition tostandard HTML documents, various forms, Java applets, JavaScript, activeserver pages (ASP), common gateway interface scripts (CGI), extensiblemarkup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), AJAX(Asynchronous Javascript And XML), helper applications, plug-ins, and/orthe like. A server may include a web service that receives a requestfrom a web server, the request including a URL(http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address (123.56.789.234).The web server retrieves the appropriate web pages and sends the data orapplications for the web pages to the IP address. Web services areapplications that are capable of interacting with other applicationsover a communications means, such as the internet. Web services aretypically based on standards or protocols such as XML, SOAP, AJAX, WSDLand UDDI. Web services methods are well known in the art, and arecovered in many standard texts. See, e.g., ALEX NGHIEM, IT WEB SERVICES:A ROADMAP FOR THE ENTERPRISE (2003), hereby incorporated by reference.

Middleware may include any hardware and/or software suitably configuredto facilitate communications and/or process transactions betweendisparate computing systems. Middleware components are commerciallyavailable and known in the art. Middleware may be implemented throughcommercially available hardware and/or software, through custom hardwareand/or software components, or through a combination thereof. Middlewaremay reside in a variety of configurations and may exist as a standalonesystem or may be a software component residing on the Internet server.Middleware may be configured to process transactions between the variouscomponents of an application server and any number of internal orexternal systems for any of the purposes disclosed herein. WebSphere MQ™(formerly MQSeries) by IBM, Inc. (Armonk, N.Y.) is an example of acommercially available middleware product. An Enterprise Service Bus(“ESB”) application is another example of middleware.

Practitioners will also appreciate that there are a number of methodsfor displaying data within a browser-based document. Data may berepresented as standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list,drop-down list, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window,and/or the like. Likewise, there are a number of methods available formodifying data in a web page such as, for example, free text entry usinga keyboard, selection of menu items, check boxes, option boxes, and/orthe like.

The system and method may be described herein in terms of functionalblock components, screen shots, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocksmay be realized by any number of hardware and/or software componentsconfigured to perform the specified functions. For example, the systemmay employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements,processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, and/or the like,which may carry out a variety of functions under the control of one ormore microprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the system may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, VBScript,Macromedia Cold Fusion, COBOL, Microsoft Active Server Pages, assembly,PERL, PHP, awk, Python, Visual Basic, SQL Stored Procedures, PL/SQL, anyUNIX shell script, and extensible markup language (XML) with the variousalgorithms being implemented with any combination of data structures,objects, processes, routines or other programming elements. Further, itshould be noted that the system may employ any number of conventionaltechniques for data transmission, signaling, data processing, networkcontrol, and/or the like. Still further, the system could be used todetect or prevent security issues with a client-side scripting language,such as JavaScript, VBScript or the like. For a basic introduction ofcryptography and network security, see any of the following references:(1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, And Source Code In C,”by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons (second edition,1995); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson, published byO'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & Network Security:Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall;all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

With further regard to terms such as “consumer,” “customer,” “merchant,”and/or the like, each of these participants may be equipped with acomputing device in order to interact with the system and facilitateonline commerce transactions. A consumer or customer may have acomputing unit in the form of a personal computer, although other typesof computing units may be used including laptops, notebooks, hand heldcomputers, set-top boxes, cellular telephones, touch-tone telephonesand/or the like. A merchant may have a computing unit implemented in theform of a computer-server, although other implementations arecontemplated by the system. A bank may have a computing center shown asa main frame computer. However, the bank computing center may beimplemented in other forms, such as a mini-computer, a PC server, anetwork of computers located in the same of different geographiclocations, or the like. Moreover, the system contemplates the use, saleor distribution of any goods, services or information over any networkhaving similar functionality described herein

A merchant computer and/or a bank computer may be interconnected via asecond network, referred to as a payment network. The payment networkwhich may be part of certain transactions represents existingproprietary networks that presently accommodate transactions for creditcards, debit cards, and other types of financial/banking cards. Thepayment network is a closed network that is assumed to be secure fromeavesdroppers. Exemplary transaction networks may include the AmericanExpress®, VisaNet® and the Veriphone® networks.

An electronic commerce system may be implemented at the customer andissuing bank. In an exemplary implementation, the electronic commercesystem may be implemented as computer software modules loaded onto thecustomer computer and the banking computing center. The merchantcomputer may not require any additional software to participate in theonline commerce transactions supported by the online commerce system.

As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, the systemmay be embodied as a customization of an existing system, an add-onproduct, a processing apparatus executing upgraded software, a standalone system, a distributed system, a method, a data processing system,a device for data processing, and/or a computer program product.Accordingly, any portion of the system or a module may take the form ofa processing apparatus executing code, an internet based embodiment, anentirely hardware embodiment, or an embodiment combining aspects of theinternet, software and hardware. Furthermore, the system may take theform of a computer program product on a computer-readable storage mediumhaving computer-readable program code means embodied in the storagemedium. Any suitable computer-readable storage medium may be utilized,including hard disks, CD-ROM, optical storage devices, magnetic storagedevices, and/or the like.

The system and method is described herein with reference to screenshots, block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus(e.g., systems), and computer program products according to variousembodiments. It will be understood that each functional block of theblock diagrams and the flowchart illustrations, and combinations offunctional blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,respectively, can be implemented by computer program instructions.

These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructionsthat execute on the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may alsobe stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser windows, webpages, websites, web forms, prompts, etc. Practitionerswill appreciate that the illustrated steps described herein may comprisein any number of configurations including the use of windows, webpages,web forms, popup windows, prompts and/or the like. It should be furtherappreciated that the multiple steps as illustrated and described may becombined into single webpages and/or windows but have been expanded forthe sake of simplicity. In other cases, steps illustrated and describedas single process steps may be separated into multiple webpages and/orwindows but have been combined for simplicity.

The term “non-transitory” is to be understood to remove only propagatingtransitory signals per se from the claim scope and does not relinquishrights to all standard computer-readable media that are not onlypropagating transitory signals per se. Stated another way, the meaningof the term “non-transitory computer-readable medium” should beconstrued to exclude only those types of transitory computer-readablemedia which were found in In Re Nuijten to fall outside the scope ofpatentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. §101.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to ‘at least one of A, B, and C’or ‘at least one of A, B, or C’ is used in the claims or specification,it is intended that the phrase be interpreted to mean that A alone maybe present in an embodiment, B alone may be present in an embodiment, Calone may be present in an embodiment, or that any combination of theelements A, B and C may be present in a single embodiment; for example,A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C. Although the disclosureincludes a method, it is contemplated that it may be embodied ascomputer program instructions on a tangible computer-readable carrier,such as a magnetic or optical memory or a magnetic or optical disk. Allstructural, chemical, and functional equivalents to the elements of theabove-described exemplary embodiments that are known to those ofordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by referenceand are intended to be encompassed by the present claims. Moreover, itis not necessary for a device or method to address each and everyproblem sought to be solved by the present disclosure, for it to beencompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component,or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated tothe public regardless of whether the element, component, or method stepis explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element herein is to beconstrued under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, unlessthe element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for.” As usedherein, the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variationthereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that aprocess, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elementsdoes not include only those elements but may include other elements notexpressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, orapparatus.

The system may include or interface with any of the foregoing accounts,devices, and/or a transponder and reader (e.g. RFID reader) in RFcommunication with the transponder (which may include a fob), orcommunications between an initiator and a target enabled by near fieldcommunications (NFC). Typical devices may include, for example, a keyring, tag, card, cell phone, wristwatch or any such form capable ofbeing presented for interrogation. Moreover, the system, computing unitor device discussed herein may include a “pervasive computing device,”which may include a traditionally non-computerized device that isembedded with a computing unit. Examples may include watches, Internetenabled kitchen appliances, restaurant tables embedded with RF readers,wallets or purses with imbedded transponders, etc. Furthermore, a deviceor financial transaction instrument may have electronic andcommunications functionality enabled, for example, by: a network ofelectronic circuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto orwithin the transaction instrument (and typically referred to as a “smartcard”); a fob having a transponder and an RFID reader; and/or near fieldcommunication (NFC) technologies. For more information regarding NFC,refer to the following specifications all of which are incorporated byreference herein: ISO/IEC 18092/ECMA-340, Near Field CommunicationInterface and Protocol-1 (NFCIP-1); ISO/IEC 21481/ECMA-352, Near FieldCommunication Interface and Protocol-2 (NFCIP-2); and EMV 4.2 availableat http://www.emvco.com/default.aspx.

The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency, wireless, audio and/or opticaldevice capable of transmitting or downloading data from itself to asecond device. A consumer account number may be, for example, asixteen-digit account number, although each credit provider has its ownnumbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used byAmerican Express. Each company's account numbers comply with thatcompany's standardized format such that the company using afifteen-digit format will generally use three-spaced sets of numbers, asrepresented by the number “0000 000000 00000”. The first five to sevendigits are reserved for processing purposes and identify the issuingbank, account type, etc. In this example, the last (fifteenth) digit isused as a sum check for the fifteen digit number. The intermediaryeight-to-eleven digits are used to uniquely identify the consumer. Amerchant account number may be, for example, any number or alpha-numericcharacters that identify a particular merchant for purposes of accountacceptance, account reconciliation, reporting, or the like.

Phrases and terms similar to “financial institution” or “transactionaccount issuer” may include any entity that offers transaction accountservices. Although often referred to as a “financial institution,” thefinancial institution may represent any type of bank, lender or othertype of account issuing institution, such as credit card companies, cardsponsoring companies, or third party issuers under contract withfinancial institutions. It is further noted that other participants maybe involved in some phases of the transaction, such as an intermediarysettlement institution.

The terms “payment vehicle,” “financial transaction instrument,”“transaction instrument” and/or the plural form of these terms may beused interchangeably throughout to refer to a financial instrument.

Phrases and terms similar to “internal data” or “closed loop data” mayinclude any data a credit issuer possesses or acquires pertaining to aparticular consumer. Internal data may be gathered before, during, orafter a relationship between the credit issuer and the transactionaccount holder (e.g., the consumer or buyer). Such data may includeconsumer demographic data. Consumer demographic data includes any datapertaining to a consumer. Consumer demographic data may include consumername, address, telephone number, email address, employer and socialsecurity number. Consumer transactional data is any data pertaining tothe particular transactions in which a consumer engages during any giventime period. Consumer transactional data may include, for example,transaction amount, transaction time, transaction vendor/merchant, andtransaction vendor/merchant location. Transaction vendor/merchantlocation may contain a high degree of specificity to a vendor/merchant.For example, transaction vendor/merchant location may include aparticular gasoline filing station in a particular postal code locatedat a particular cross section or address. Also, for example, transactionvendor/merchant location may include a particular web address, such as aUniform Resource Locator (“URL”), an email address and/or an InternetProtocol (“IP”) address for a vendor/merchant. Transactionvendor/merchant, and transaction vendor/merchant location may beassociated with a particular consumer and further associated with setsof consumers. Consumer payment data includes any data pertaining to aconsumer's history of paying debt obligations. Consumer payment data mayinclude consumer payment dates, payment amounts, balance amount, andcredit limit. Internal data may further comprise records of consumerservice calls, complaints, requests for credit line increases,questions, and comments. A record of a consumer service call includes,for example, date of call, reason for call, and any transcript orsummary of the actual call.

Phrases similar to a “payment processor” may include a company (e.g., athird party) appointed (e.g., by a merchant) to handle transactions. Apayment processor may include an issuer, acquirer, authorizer and/or anyother system or entity involved in the transaction process. Paymentprocessors may be broken down into two types: front-end and back-end.Front-end payment processors have connections to various transactionaccounts and supply authorization and settlement services to themerchant banks' merchants. Back-end payment processors acceptsettlements from front-end payment processors and, via The FederalReserve Bank, move money from an issuing bank to the merchant bank. Inan operation that will usually take a few seconds, the payment processorwill both check the details received by forwarding the details to therespective account's issuing bank or card association for verification,and may carry out a series of anti-fraud measures against thetransaction. Additional parameters, including the account's country ofissue and its previous payment history, may be used to gauge theprobability of the transaction being approved. In response to thepayment processor receiving confirmation that the transaction accountdetails have been verified, the information may be relayed back to themerchant, who will then complete the payment transaction. In response tothe verification being denied, the payment processor relays theinformation to the merchant, who may then decline the transaction.Phrases similar to a “payment gateway” or “gateway” may include anapplication service provider service that authorizes payments fore-businesses, online retailers, and/or traditional brick and mortarmerchants. The gateway may be the equivalent of a physical point of saleterminal located in most retail outlets. A payment gateway may protecttransaction account details by encrypting sensitive information, such astransaction account numbers, to ensure that information passes securelybetween the customer and the merchant and also between merchant andpayment processor.

Phrases similar to a “payment gateway” or “gateway” may include anapplication service provider service that authorizes payments fore-businesses, online retailers, and/or traditional brick and mortarmerchants. The gateway may be the equivalent of a physical point of saleterminal located in most retail outlets. A payment gateway may protecttransaction account details by encrypting sensitive information, such astransaction account numbers, to ensure that information passes securelybetween the customer and the merchant and also between merchant andpayment processor.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: comparing, by acomputer-based system, a number of days between a ROC associated with amerchant and a current date, to a number of consecutive days duringwhich the merchant was not associated with a ROC; adding, by thecomputer-based system, a buffer value to the number of consecutive daysduring which the merchant was not associated with a ROC; and flagging,by the computer-based system, the merchant with a status of inactivebased upon the comparing, wherein the flagging is in response to thenumber of days between the ROC associated with the merchant and thecurrent date being greater than the number of consecutive days duringwhich the merchant was not associated with a ROC plus a buffer value. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the buffer value comprises a configurablevalue.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing, by thecomputer-based system, the number of days between a ROC associated withthe merchant and the current date to a buffer value.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, further comprising flagging, by the computer-based system, themerchant as active if the number of days between a ROC associated withthe merchant and the current date is less than the buffer value.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the buffer value comprises a value of threedays.
 6. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangiblecomputer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereonthat, in response to execution by a computer-based system, cause thecomputer-based system to be capable of performing operations comprising:comparing, by the computer-based system, a number of days between a ROCassociated with a merchant and a current date, to a number ofconsecutive days during which the merchant was not associated with aROC; adding, by the computer-based system, a buffer value to the numberof consecutive days during which the merchant was not associated with aROC; and flagging, by the computer-based system, the merchant with astatus of inactive based upon the comparing, wherein the flagging is inresponse to the number of days between the ROC associated with themerchant and the current date being greater than the number ofconsecutive days during which the merchant was not associated with a ROCplus a buffer value.
 7. The article of claim 6, wherein the buffer valuecomprises a configurable value.
 8. The article of claim 6, furthercomprising comparing, by the computer-based system, the number of daysbetween a ROC associated with the merchant and the current date to abuffer value.
 9. The article of claim 8, further comprising flagging, bythe computer-based system, the merchant as active if the number of daysbetween a ROC associated with the merchant and the current date is lessthan the buffer value.
 10. The article of claim 9, wherein the buffervalue comprises a value of three days.
 11. A system comprising: aprocessor, a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicatewith the processor, the tangible, non-transitory memory havinginstructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by theprocessor, cause the processor to be capable of performing operationscomprising: comparing, by a processor, a number of days between a ROCassociated with a merchant and a current date, to a number ofconsecutive days during which the merchant was not associated with aROC; adding, by the processor, a buffer value to the number ofconsecutive days during which the merchant was not associated with aROC; and flagging, by the processor, the merchant with a status ofinactive based upon the comparing, wherein the flagging is in responseto the number of days between the ROC associated with the merchant andthe current date being greater than the number of consecutive daysduring which the merchant was not associated with a ROC plus a buffervalue.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the buffer value comprises aconfigurable value.
 13. The system of claim 11, further comprisingcomparing, by the processor, the number of days between a ROC associatedwith the merchant and the current date to a buffer value.
 14. The systemof claim 13, further comprising flagging, by the processor, the merchantas active if the number of days between a ROC associated with themerchant and the current date is less than the buffer value.
 15. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the buffer value comprises a value of threedays.